Paper Flower
by KB Kerns
Summary: All about the life of Pansy Parkinson, starting in 5th year. Better summary inside.
1. Perfect By Nature

**A/N: **Hey all! Here's my full length Pansy Parkinson fic. (Don't worry 'Original Prankster' readers, I haven't abandoned it, I'm having a bit of writers block for it though.) This will take place mainly 5th year and up, but it will include flashbacks from years 1-4 to fill in the gaps. It will mostly be Pansy's POV, and it will basically be about her life and ultimately her relationship with Draco. I think she's an interesting character to play around with. Anywhoo, happy reading!

**Disclaimer: Nothing in this story is mine, except maybe some of the plot that wasn't in the books. Everything else belongs to JK Rowling.**

Perfection.

It was an expectation. The image she was supposed to see whenever she looked in the mirror. She hated mirrors. They were only good for reflecting one thing: her insecurities.

She grew up in wealth and privilege. Pureblood family, all belonging to the most noble house of Slytherin. Well, almost everyone. She had a great great uncle Alfred who was a Hufflepuff, but no one ever talks about him.

Pansy was, of course, expected to be perfect in every way. Say please and thank you, cross your legs, fold your hands in your lap, NEVER slurp your tea. Not unless you want mothers gossiping about how uncivilized you are.

From the time she was 3 until she was 11, afternoon tea with her mother's social clubs and their children were routine. Many long days were spent by forced interaction with Millicent "The Troll" Bulstrode, while their mothers drank tea on their perfectly manicured lawns.

She loved this life. She loved her mansion outside of London. She loved her dolls and her tea parties and her frilly pink dresses.

Then she grew up.

15 year old Pansy Parkinson looked in her mirror, running a finger through her silky brown hair. She looked at her small, up-turned nose and wrinkled it in disgust. She always thought it rather resembled a pug. She had thin pink lips and porcelain doll skin with bright emerald green eyes that even Saint Potter would appreciate.

'_Thank god for this muggle make-up,' _she thought, as she applied it to her face. She stared at herself in the mirror, thinking about her life as she often did.

She never thought of herself as pretty. She had to endure the taunts of "pug face" from the Gryffindors her first three years at Hogwarts. She used to be very needy since she never stayed away from home long as a child. The other Slytherins, especially Draco Malfoy, considered her to be a whiny brat the first couple of years. Her only friend was Millicent Bulstrode, who didn't really even like her that much either.

Suddenly, at the beginning of last year, she woke up one day and….well, looked better then usual. Her clothes fit more snugly, her hair seemed to do what she wanted it to, her little bit of acne was gone.

Now it seemed everyone wanted to be her friend. Girls were asking _her_ for make up tips and all the latest gossip from the rumor mill. Pansy was happy to dish it out, obviously. It was in her blood.

She quickly began getting asked out on dates to Hogsmeade by boys that weren't even in Slytherin. She become best friends with the Slytherin bimbo, Daphne Greengrass, completely eliminating Bulstrode from the picture. She immediately started forming her "clique", and only the most pretty and superficial made the cut.

She loved strutting down the halls of Hogwarts, Daphne on her right side while the other girls followed behind like puppy dogs, making snide remarks at Gryffindors and occasionally the sniveling Hufflepuff. She would compliment a girl's hair style, completely making that girl's day because THE Pansy Parkinson liked her hair. A minute later Pansy would whisper to her girlfriends how horribly ugly it looked. The girls would laugh appreciatively and nod in agreement But what did it matter? It's not like that other girl could hear her.

She had never been a sweet girl, but she had become downright cold and malicious. If anyone crossed her, she made them regret it. Lisa Turpin, the Ravenclaw queen bee, once bumped into Pansy, giving her a dirty look. Two hours later, Pansy had convinced the whole school that Lisa was pregnant with Marcus Flint's baby. Now Lisa gives Pansy and pearly white smile whenever she sees her.

You didn't mess with Pansy Parkinson, not unless you wanted your reputation ruined before you could even defend yourself. God forbid you got into a fight with her, you didn't stand a chance. She fired vicious retorts before the other person could even open their mouths to argue. She was feared but respected. How else could you be the proclaimed Slytherin Princess?

If you wanted to be the princess, you had to be dirty. It was hard for her at first, having no experience with boys, but soon enough she was making out with half the boys in her year. She got so good at it that it become nothing more then a rainy day activity, Her sultry, seductive mechanisms had them eating out of the palm of her hand. All she had to do was say "hey you" to a boy with a smile on her face, and next thing she knew she'd be on his lap kissing him. Some girls said she was a slut. Pansy said they were just jealous.

Snapping back out of her trance, she grabbed the letter on dresser from Dumbledore saying she had been appointed Prefect. Finally, the man did something right. She vaguely wondered who the other prefect was as she applied mascara to her lashes, but at that moment she didn't care. As a prefect, she had complete power now. She would patrol the halls, knowing that people were practically bowing down to her. "Bow in the presence of greatness" her mother always said.

"Pansy, our guests have arrived." Her mother's voice floated into her room. '_Oh great, I wonder who the boring dinner guest of the month is this time,' _she thought as she glided down the marble staircase and into the family room.

There, sitting on the sofa talking with her mother and father, were none other then Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.

And there he stood, leaning against the wall, staring into the fireplace and looking like he'd rather be anywhere else. His sleek blonde hair fell in front of his stormy blue eyes, the light of the fire flickering on his pale white skin. The boy whose name alone sent shivers up her spine.

Draco Malfoy, the very definition of perfection.

**AN: **That was just an intro I guess, so you can get the idea of what I think Pansy and Slytherin girls in general might be like. I pictured Pansy to look and act like Sarah Michelle Geller's character Kathryn from the movie Cruel Intentions. The next chapters will be longer and wont have so much detail, just storyline. Let me know what you think (:


	2. Business As Usual

**A/N:** **Hey guys! Glad you like the story so far, keep up the reviews! (They inspire me to update faster)**

Pansy and Draco, Draco and Pansy, Prince and Princess. It didn't really matter, because it was all the same to everyone else. Everyone just automatically lumped them together ever since they went to the Yule Ball together.

They didn't hate each other like they used to when they were younger. Now there was the physical attraction. They made out in the dungeon after their potions final last year and were caught by Professor Snape, starting a whole fleet of rumors. Everyone assumed they were together, but they **weren't,** and Draco made sure of that. They couldn't ruin their reputations, after all.

While there may have been physical attraction, it seemed like there wasn't much else they liked about each other. It was more a feeling of mutual respect and possible admiration. And fear, in Pansy's case.

She was terrified of him. The way he commanded attention and could make anyone do anything at the snap of his bony fingers. The way he manipulated and threatened people, and the way he could hypnotize girls into "just coming upstairs with him for a second", and then disappearing for an hour. He was downright gorgeous, and Pansy had reasoned with that notion the first day she saw him. His good looks added to the intimidation factor.

"Parkinson," he said, giving her his trademark smirk. "You're getting alarmingly thin."

"And you're still alarmingly pale, it all evens out," she shot back without missing a beat.

He cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "Touche."

She studied her nails and shrugged.

"So I'm sure you've heard all about me being the new prefect," he informed her.

No, she hadn't heard. How could she not have heard? She let out a nervous laugh.

"You? Really?"

"Don't sound so surprised, Parkinson," he said as he narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well I'm sure _you'll _be surprised to know that I've been made prefect as well," she said casually.

He actually did raise his eyebrows in slight surprise, which was just the affect she was looking for, even if it only lasted a half a second.

"Finally, the old bat has done something intelligent," he said with an eye roll.

"My thoughts exactly, dragon," she smirked. Only she was allowed to call him that.

He smirked at her as their parents made their way over to them. Narcissa was making a fuss over Pansy.

"Look how beautiful you've gotten Pansy, my god, the figure on you! I'm sure you have every boy in school after you," she said with a glance at Draco, who pretended not to see her.

"Thank you Mrs. Malfoy, and you look radiant as always," Pansy smiled sweetly. Adults were the easiest to scam, she flew right under their radar because she was just "such an angel." If only they knew…

"She's so elegant, Priscilla, she's everything a boy would want." Narcissa said to Pansy's mother.

"Thank you, Narcissa. We do our best." said Priscilla.

"Miss Parkinson, I believe my wife took the words right of my mouth," said Lucius Malfoy as he kissed Pansy's hand. His lips were cold, and it was all she could do not to shiver. She never really liked Lucius much. He was slippery like a snake, and seemed just as venomous.

The parents sat in the family room, talking. Pansy retreated up to her bedroom unnoticed, as Draco followed.

"What are you doing here anyway," she asked, sitting down on her fluffy pink bed.

"Ministry issues with our fathers, why else?" he shrugged.

Their fathers had worked in the same department for years, and Lucius had been coming to the Parkinson house for meetings with her father, Peter, for as long as Pansy could remember.

"So, we're prefects now? Together?" she asked.

"So it would appear."

He was leaning against her pink wall, his arms folded over his chest and looking at her as she sprawled out on her bed.

"You look lonely over there," she said.

"It's a bit lonely over here, yeah," he said, going along with it.

She patted the bed for him to sit down, and he walked over to her like a cat on the prowl. He had such a dramatic presence about him that everything he did seemed to have a certain flair to it.

"So, how long do you expect it will take this time?" she asked.

"I don't know, an hour?" he guessed.

"That leaves us a lot of time, and…well, honestly I'm quite bored," she yawned, chipping away at her pink nail polish.

They stared at each other for a minute, and she arched a perfectly sculpted eyebrow at him.

"We could always read a nice _book, _you know, learn some new stuff before school starts so we'll be ahead!" he said, imitating Granger with a big smirk on his face.

"Au contraire, mon cherie. I'm more of a 'hands on' type of learner," she grinned.

He gave her that sexy eyebrow wag she went crazy for. "Well since you're a prefect now, I guess I have to do whatever you say."

"Yeah, you do," she said.

She rolled on top of him and jammed her lips up against his. He put his hands behind her head and kissed her hard. They were slipping back into their old 4th year habits that they quit once Snape had caught them.

"You look good this year," he said huskily.

"I could say the same for you," she breathed as she ran her hands under his shirt. She could feel his hard stomach muscles clenching and unclenching.

"You know," he continued, "prefects get their own bathrooms this year."

"Intriguing," she mumbled into his shoulder as she kissed it.

"That could be fun," he said.

"Yeah, you can bring your little tramps in there, won't that be nice?" she asked sarcastically.

"And you can bring your weekly boy toys, won't _that_ be nice?" he smirked.

"Shut the hell up," she muttered as she began planting kisses on his stomach. "Mmm, someone's been working out a lot this summer," she noted.

"I get bored, making out with tramps like you gets old after the first month."

"Oh you're funny."

Suddenly they heard a knock on the door.

"Pansy, darling, is everything all right?" came the voice of Priscilla from outside the door.

"Of course mother, Draco and I are…just catching up a little. We don't want to get behind on our work now that we're such responsible prefects." Pansy called back.

"Of course you are darling, sorry to interrupt. You're such good kids." she said as she walked back downstairs.

"Bloody idiots," she said as she rolled her eyes.

He smirked and smashed his lips back up against hers.

This went on for about 20 more minutes when Narcissa called up to Draco and said they were leaving.

Draco put his shirt back on as Pansy ran a hand through his sleek blonde hair and wiped off the lip gloss on his cheeks.

"Well, see you next week Parkinson," he said with a nod and strutted out the door.

"Bye," she said as she shut her door. She sat down at her vanity and once again began picking apart everything she didn't like about herself, covering her insecurities with foundation and eye liner.

Everything was business as usual.

**A/N: So this chapter basically gives you a glimpse of what I think Pansy's relationship with Draco is. In my mind its kind of an on/off, hot/cold one that they have when its convenient for them, but that's not what this whole story will be about. There will be a lot of other aspects too, so keep reading!**


	3. C'est La Vie

**A/N: I'm really glad you guys like this story! I'll update as often as possible, thanks for the reviews, they're very inspiring (:**

**Disclaimer: Once again, I don't own anything.**

The first day of school had crept up on Pansy a little too quickly. Before she knew it, she was packing her trunk for her 5th year at Hogwarts. She awoke bright and early on the morning of September 1st at 8:00 am.

'_Whoever made morning be so early ought to be Avada Kedavra'd.' _she thought as her eyes adjusted to the atmosphere around her. She lay in bed for a few more minutes then slowly rose from the comfort of her fluffy pink mattress.

Her mother knocked on the door softly. "Darling, are you up yet?" she asked.

"Yes mother, I'm getting ready," she replied, already thinking of how she should wear her hair.

An hour and a half later, she had showered and beautified herself. She floated into the large marble white kitchen, plopping down on a cushioned seat.

"Do you want some bacon and ham sandwiches, dear?" her mother asked.

"Yes, and while you're at it, I'd like a tub of lard too, it does wonders for my figure," she snapped sarcastically. She was by no means a morning person.

Her mother stared, apparently not sure if she was joking or not.

"Just get me some fruit, mother," said Pansy as she rubbed her eyes. "Please," she added as an afterthought. Morning person she was not, but she was always polite.

After eating her assortment of berries, her father came in and told her they should probably leave. She kissed her mother goodbye and hauled her trunk out to her father's expensive looking black car.

An hour later, she was standing in front of the fire-engine red Hogwart's Express.

"It's nearly 11:00, you'd better go find your friends. Have a good term, and I'll see you at Christmas, princess," her father said, kissing her on the top of the head.

"Bye, daddy," she smiled sweetly. She had her father wrapped around her finger.

She walked the length of the train, checking compartments for her girlfriends. Finally, she spotted the bouncing blonde head of Daphne Greengrass, likely re-enacting a scene between her and one of her many boys she met on her summer vacations.

"Started the party without me? Oh wait, its not a party until I've arrived, so I suppose you couldn't have." Pansy walked in, grinning at the girls.

"Pansy!" they all squealed.

She hugged all of them, and sat herself on Daphne's lap since the small compartment was cramped.

"I can't stay long, I have to go to the _prefect_ compartment," she smirked, knowing the reaction she was about to receive.

"No!"

"You're _joking!"_

"Dumbledore really has lost it…"

"Shut up Sally Anne," Pansy smiled, hitting her on the shoulder.

"So who else is with you? I bet its Blaise," Daphne sighed dreamily.

"Lucky for you, it's not. Nope, I'm stuck with Draco Malfoy," Pansy replied.

There was another chorus of "No!" and "You're joking!" as well as the added "He's delicious!" and "Damn, you lucky girl!"

"Don't go getting any ideas girls. I don't date cold blooded bastards, contrary to popular belief," said Pansy with a roll of her eyes.

"What ever you say, Pans," Daphne said shaking her head. "You'd better get going, we'll see you at the feast."

"Yeah, see you," said Pansy as she left the compartment.

She was walking up the isle toward the prefect's compartment when she saw that Mudblood and the Weasel boy.

"Oh how cute, Beaver and Weasel are the new Gryffindor prefects!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"And it looks like the two snakes are the Slytherin prefects," Weasel mumbled to Granger, apparently thinking it was a clever come back.

"Yes, rather fitting, isn't it?" Pansy smirked as she opened the door to the prefect's compartment.

'_Figures, those god-awful Hufflepuffs are in here first.' _Pansy thought to herself.

She wrinkled her nose slightly and sat on the farthest end of the compartment near the window, looking out as the countryside blurred around her.

She could feel everyone's eyes on her, but she was in no mood for conversing with the Hufflepuffs and Gryffindors.

"Have a good holiday, Parkinson?" someone asked.

She turned from the window to see who was talking to her. To her disappointment, it was a Hufflepuff boy. Too lazy to come up with an insult, she answered him with diplomacy. She was a prefect now, after all.

"Oh, just lovely, and yours…um…person whose name escapes me at the moment—"

"Ernie. Ernie Macmillan. I sat behind you in transfiguration all last year, you know, helped you with your homework a couple of times," he informed her while puffing out his chest importantly and rubbing his prefect badge.

'_What, are you like, training to be the Minister of Magic or something? Reality check, please, freak.'_

"Of course you did, Bernie," she said, flashing him her most dazzling smile.

"It's ERNIE," he huffed pompously, but she just kept smiling at him.

"…Right, Ernie…silly me!" she giggled. Once he had turned away, she rolled her eyes and made a face to imitate him, then leaned her head back against the window.

A few minutes later, the Ravenclaws came in, and Pansy was able to have at least a semi-interesting conversation for a while. After a while though, she was growing bored.

As if on queue, the compartment door opened, and Draco slipped in lazily. He looked around at his fellow prefects. He seemed to approve of the Ravenclaws, but no one else passed the test.

"Oh look, it's the Weasel and Brainiac. Where's Potty these days? Running off with that Sirius Black?" he drawled with a smirk.

The two Gryffindors glared angrily at him.

"Couldn't believe my ears when I heard YOU were prefect, Malfoy," said Weasley.

"I could say the same for you, Weasely. But I guess Dumbledore had to give you _something_ your parents could be proud of. Too bad being a prefect doesn't pay," Draco shot back.

Granger put a hand on Weasley's. "Ignore him," she said. That was always her answer, but Pansy knew all too well that Draco Malfoy was very hard to ignore.

Draco made his way over to her. "Hey, Parkinson," he said, giving her a nonchalant nod.

"Malfoy. Late as always," she nodded back.

"A Malfoy is never late. We are _fashionably_ late, and therefore when we walk into a room shortly after an event has started, we receive attention from those already there, like you," he smirked.

"And I suppose you think I was just goggling my eyes out at you when you walked in, do you?" she asked, returning his smirk.

"I don't think, I _know,"_ he said as he waggled his eyebrow.

"Whatever gets you to sleep at night," she said, and continued to look out the window.

She could have sworn she saw him let out the tiniest laugh, but she decided it was her imagination. She could just hear him now. _"Malfoy's don't laugh or smile. We smirk, snicker, and sneer. Sometimes a combination of the three."_

Finally they had arrived at school. Instead of getting into a carriage with her girlfriends, she opted to go with the Slytherin boys. Not that they minded, of course.

She perched herself on Draco's lap, and she felt him wrap his arms around her waist. And so began their routine once again.

They exited the carriage and filed into the Great Hall to listen to the old Bat mumble nonsense words.

'_Honestly, if we wanted to learn nonsense we would have Crabbe and Goyle be the headmasters,' _she thought.

She was surrounded by her clique of girls, all giggling and gossiping. She was back in her element, and began naming off girls she decided had gotten fat, pregnant, or ugly over the summer. This caused another eruption of giggles that made the boys on the other end of the table look over at them.

Draco was surrounded by the boys, talking in his usual cold drawl, most likely exaggerating a story and causing the other boys to snigger in approval. He caught Pansy's eye for a second, but his attention was averted when a girl approached him and started talking to him.

She rolled her eyes. Bloody typical. She scanned the table for a boy to flirt with, and settled on Adrian Pucey.

'_The older they are, the better. And the richer,' _her mother had always said.

She always took to heart whatever her mother said. _'You've got great breasts and quick wit. That's all you will ever need,' _she told her. Okay, so maybe it was a bit crass, but Pansy lived by this statement.

She slid down the bench to Adrian, and immediately began her usual ritual, consisting of

"Those quidditch practices really pay off." or "We don't hang out enough, let's meet up later."

By the time the feast ended and everyone was heading to bed, she had concluded that he was quite possibly worse then Marcus Flint, and dejectedly walked to the common room with Daphne.

"That was so depressing I might actually go to bed," said Pansy sullenly.

"I'll see you in the morning, I'm meeting Blaise in the nearest broom cupboard," she smirked.

"Ooh la la, have fun, mon cherie," Pansy cooed, blowing her a kiss.

"I'll try, but last time I got covered in bruises. He's all angles and bones," she winked, blowing Pansy a kiss back.

Pansy walked towards the stone steps to the girl's dorm, passing Draco, who was surrounded by girls. Some were older, some younger, and some were from Pansy's inner circle, but they were all giggling at whatever he was saying. She smirked, rolling her eyes at them, and continued towards the staircase.

'_Maybe I'll just peek into the boy's dorm. Theodore Nott is looking fine this year,' _she thought. She headed towards the boys staircase, but was stopped before she could carry out her mission.

"Going somewhere?" said that emotionless, almost bored drawl as she felt cold fingers grab her arm.

She repressed that urge to shiver she always got when he touched her. The one his father gave her when he'd kiss her hand. They both creeped her out sometimes.

She turned to face him, and found herself staring into those stormy blue-grey eyes. His blonde hair hung across his forehead, and his chest was steadily rising and falling. Overcome by his good looks and her ever-lustful thoughts, she pushed his hair back and quickly ran her fingers through it.

"I was just going to see the new prefect's bathroom…maybe I'll see you there?" she whispered.

"Give me five minutes," he said, wagging his eyebrows at her before disappearing back into the crowd of girls.

She sighed, indifferent and unconcerned about what was probably going to happen twenty minutes from now. _'Well, I've done worse. At least I'll probably have a better story then Daphne's at breakfast tomorrow.'_

**AN: So sorry it took so long, I've had this chapter written for a while, but I've had major computer issues lately. I hope I'm keeping them in character, especially Draco, he can be tricky. I hate when people make him too mushy so that it isn't believable. Like JK Rowling said, "Whatever he looks like, Draco is not a nice man." And I plan on keeping him that way, that's why we love him, right? (: **

**PS- if anyone reading this story has read my Fred and George story, I almost have that next chapter done too, but like I said my computer has been in a funk and I had to rewrite a lot.**


	4. The Business of Misery

**A/N: Wow, I can't believe that it's been almost two months since I updated this. You've all been so great with reviews, I feel so mean for not updating sooner! I just honestly wasn't that inspired. Call it winter blues, maybe, but all your reviews have been so great and inspiring that they finally got me on track. Love to all readers and especially reviewers, it keeps me motivated so thank you! **

**Again, if I owned ANYTHING, would I be writing this story? Negative, thanks. I also don't own the lyrics to the song Misery Business by Paramore, obviously. **

_**I'm in the business of misery…**_

Pansy watched him dip back into the gaggle of girls around him, smirking at the way they threw themselves at him, and knowing _she_ was the one who was getting something out of it. She didn't need to throw herself at him, he would come to her on his own. They were okay with the fact that use each other mercilessly with no strings attached. Friends with benefits may bother some people, but not them. They're 'strictly business' kind of people.

But still, sometimes she wondered…

She didn't have much time to wonder before she felt a firm grip on her arm and was pulled out of the common room.

"Ooh, rough tonight are we? Good, cause I'm--" she was cut off by his mouth.

"Strawberry," he said as he licked his lips, not taking his eyes off her.

"You like?" she smiled, knowing full well he did.

"I think I can deal with it," he smirked, pulling her into the prefects bathroom.

"Mmm, smells like roses in here," she mused, wrinkling her nose.

"Don't do that," he told her.

"Do what?"

"Wrinkle your nose like that. It's…cute," he said with a look of disgust.

Pansy was so surprised she actually raised her brows. She'd never heard him use the word "cute" before in all the years she'd known him. She was pretty sure it wasn't part of his vocabulary.

"What's wrong with being cute?" she pouted.

"Don't pout either. I don't do cute," he said coldly.

"Oh…well, okay then. Sorry," she said, deciding to just brush it off.

"Whatever," he mumbled, as he started unbuttoning her shirt. She ran her fingers through his hair distractedly.

The whole "cute" thing was tugging at her mind. Did he actually think she was cute? What did that mean?

'_Shut up', _she said to her brain. _'Just be grateful you're kissing the most delicious boy in Britain.'_

He seemed to notice her absent-mindedness. He stopped kissing her collarbone long enough to look at her.

"What's up with you tonight? You're all spacing out on me, don't you think it's a little early for you to be blacking out?" he asked with a smirk.

"Sorry, I—" she gasped as his lips latched onto her neck. "I'm just tired, that's all," she finished lamely.

"Right…" he said, breaking away from her. "So, uh, I got somewhere I need to be, so I'm gonna cut out early," he said as he put his shirt back on.

"Oh, sure, okay, yeah…" she fumbled for the words. What the hell was wrong with her tonight? "I'll see you tomorrow, then,"

"Yeah, see you," he said as he walked out of the bathroom, leaving Pansy standing in front of the mirror, her shirt laying in a ball on the floor.

She sighed, put her shirt back on and made her way back to the common room. At least now if she was caught out, she had the excuse that she was "getting a head start on prefect patrolling."

Oh, how she loved her life.

When she finally opened the door to the dormitory, it was almost 1 a.m. She would be getting up in another 7 hours, and she was by no means looking forward to it. She got into her pajamas and threw her hair into a knot before climbing into her four-poster. The other girls around her were sleeping soundly, not being consumed by unrealistic thoughts.

Draco didn't like her in that way, and she certainly didn't like him either. Why had he said she looked cute? Why didn't he want her to be cute? Why did she even care? Why was she asking herself these questions?

It was all part of their little 'contract', you could call it. Pansy's job was to pleasure him without actually _pleasuring_ him.

Since he wasn't emotionally capable of actually loving anything other than himself, his job was to just have his way with her and not really care too much. That was how his parents had done it, and all the Malfoy's before him, and he was not one to break tradition. Love was considered a weakness and unnecessary evil in his family.

'_He's such a cold blooded coward,'_ she thought, her mind brinking on sleep. _'If he wasn't so damn attractive I wouldn't even be involved with this…'_

She realized then that was not involved with _him_, just involved in his tangled web of deceit and destruction, and that was all. He would never love her or need her or any of those things her muggle romance novels talked about.

That thought colossally relieved her. She was actually glad that couldn't and would never happen for them. He was already trailing his poison through her world, and she knew she couldn't wade in this particular water too deep. He was too dangerous.

_**But God does it feel so good…**_

_**It just feels so good.**_

She had finally shut off her brain long enough to at least close her eyes, when she heard the bustling of the girls in her dorm.

"Pans, you'd better get up, it's almost 7:30," Sally Anne called from the bathroom.

'_Ah, damn.'_

She groaned and slowly lifted her head up, looking around at the girls getting ready. Yup, today was going to suck.

Pansy smiled when she looked over at Daphne's sleeping form in the next bed. She could always count on Daphne to sleep late with her. They were both gorgeous; they needed at least 8 of beauty sleep.

"We'd better get ready, Daph," Pansy said to the sleeping girl.

"Alright, alright," Daphne grumbled. The two spent the next ten minutes in front of the mirror, using spells to style their hair and applying make-up. Once they felt decent enough for human interaction, they decided they might go down to breakfast.

At the bottom of the staircase, Blaise Zabini, accompanied by Theodore Nott, was waiting for Daphne.

"Hey you," Daphne smiled at Blaise as he put his arm around her.

"Hey babe," he smirked. "Sleep well?"

"Most definitely," she giggled. Pansy looked at Theodore and rolled her eyes, and he gave her a weak smile in return.

He was always the quiet one.

"Have a good holiday, Theodore?" Pansy asked him.

He looked utterly bewildered that she had spoken to him, and stuttered to answer her."

"I, uh, y-yeah, I did, t-thanks…" he replied, blushing.

Pansy smiled. She thought it was cute when boys blushed, something that Draco would not have approved of.

"Yours?" Theodore asked.

"Oh, it was good. Pretty low key, you know," she replied, still smiling. He smiled back.

'_Damn, he really did get hot,' _Pansy thought.

"Sit with me at breakfast?" she asked, pulling him gently down the hall by the hand. That usually meant he didn't have a choice, but he seemed okay with it.

"Definitely," he said entwining his fingers with hers.

'_Hmm, I'll have to keep my eye on this one,'_

They arrived at the Great Hall and sat down at the Slytherin table. She spotted Draco sitting with Crabbe, Goyle, and two 6th year bimbos she didn't know. She sat at the opposite end of the table with Daphne, Blaise, and Theodore.

Daphne and Blaise were too wrapped up in each other to pay too much attention to anyone, so it left Pansy and Theodore on their own.

"So, what do you think of that new Umbridge woman?" she asked him.

"Er, she kind of looks like a large toad, a bit like my great aunt Muriel, actually," he answered honestly. "It's kind of disturbing,"

Pansy let out a genuine laugh. This kid wasn't so bad, even though he had been looked as the Slytherin version of Neville Longbottom by the others.

Theodore continued to make jokes and she continued to laugh. She was really surprising herself today, but she knew this new found thing she had with Theodore wouldn't go unnoticed. People would talk, and that worried her to an extent. Sure, she had mastered the subtle art of fabricating gossip, but when it was about her, she was touchy. Especially if the rumors were true, because then she couldn't shut everyone up by proving them wrong. Maybe making Theodore her next target wasn't such a good idea after all, people would think she'd gone all soft and take advantage of her. They wouldn't fear or respect her anymore.

No, she couldn't have that. Not after she'd worked so hard. Pansy was prone to panic attacks, so before she gave herself one, she politely and even reluctantly excused herself to go to the ladies room.

As she got up from the table, she could feel eyes burning into her. And she knew exactly whose they were.

'_Oh, damn,'_ she thought, and quickened her pace to leave the Hall.

She got out into the Entrance Hall, thinking she was safe, and stopped.

As if on cue, she felt someone grab her arm, and she groaned inwardly.

"Damn it, Draco," she sighed, turning around to face him.

"What do you think you're doing, exactly?" he asked, clearly annoyed.

"What does it look like? I'm going to the bathroom," she snapped.

"Don't play dumb. What were you doing with Nott, of all people?" he asked venomously.

"Easy, killer, we were just having a normal conversation. Some people do that, you know," she bit back sarcastically.

"You were completely flirting with him!" he said indignantly.

"So what if I was? Are you going to stop me, Draco?" she challenged.

"Yeah, I am,"

"Oh, so it's okay for you to have sex with me, then go off and do it to other girls, but when I talk to other guys its some big violation!" she said, her voice rising.

"Shut _up,_ people can hear you!"

"So we'll give them something to talk about! And besides, everyone knows you're screwing me anyway. Might as well confirm the rumors," she smirked, knowing that would shut him up.

She loved it when she was right.

"Listen, don't go getting mixed up with Nott. He's bad news," he said in a low voice.

She laughed at this. "And what are you, exactly, Draco? A parent's wet dream? You're the boy they warn their kids about, if you haven't noticed," she pointed out.

"Yeah, and that prick wishes he was half the bad ass that I am, but that's not the point,"

"Then make your point and make it quick, you're pissing me off," she warned.

"I just don't like him. Trust me, he's not worth your time or good looks," he replied.

"Why do you care so much?" she asked suspiciously.

He seemed taken aback by this, but quickly redeemed himself, shaking his head and laughing coldly.

"Pansy, baby, you absolutely kill me. It's like you said, everyone knows I'm screwing you. I don't want that scum touching you, otherwise that makes me tainted and you'd be damaged goods. Do you really want that? I mean, you're such a pretty little thing, that'd be a damn shame," he sniggered. "So don't worry, it's not you I care about, it's status quo," he added with a sneer before turning around and swaggering back into the Great Hall.

She stared after him, open-mouthed. "You know what, Malfoy, you've just made everything a whole lot clearer," she called back.

"Good, I knew you'd see it my way," he smirked. "So, you're done with him?"

"No, actually, I'm done with you!" she yelled.

His eyes widened at her outburst, but once the effect of the words sunk in, his eyes narrowed dangerously.

She gulped, knowing he was not so pretty when he was angry.

"What did you just say, Parkinson?" he said in a dangerously low voice.

"You heard me. This, this whole twisted thing, it's done. We're done. I'm not your property, you got that? I can be with whoever the hell I want without _your_ permission,"

He stared at her, his eyes stormy. "Fine, Parkinson, have it your way then. You won't be hard to replace," he shrugged, suddenly indifferent to the whole situation.

"What's to replace? I don't even mean anything to you anyways!" she shot back.

'_Alright, maybe that was a bit over the top…'_

'Nothing gets by you, Parkinson," he drawled, then turned to go back into the Great Hall once again, and this time she didn't stop him.

She stared after him and felt hot tears pricking at her eyes.

'_Pansy Lynette Parkinson, you will not cry over this evil boy,' _she willed herself.

What was she expecting? Did she think he would come over to her, pick her up, say "No, flower, you mean everything to me," and then whisk her away?

This was getting ridiculous. She didn't get all hung up on boys like this.

She didn't….she couldn't….there was no way…

Did she like him?

'_No. Impossible. There's no way in hell, we're completely platonic!'_

So then why was it so hard to break off their arrangement?

'_Pansy, NO. You promised yourself you wouldn't do this,"_

She hated those damn inner conflicts she had with her brain.

She wiped her eyes and started going up the stairs, figuring she might as well be a little early to her first class.

'_Yup, today is definitely going to suck,'_

**A/N: Wow, that took a lot out of me! I know in the books Draco and Theodore Nott get along fairly well, but for plot purposes, they're not too friendly to each other in this story (: I hope you guys liked this chapter, and now that I'm inspired again and my writers block is broken, you won't have to wait two months for an update! Happy MLK Jr. Day! **


	5. Cute Is What We Aim For

**A/N: Two chapters in a week! Yay!**

Pansy was walking up the stairs, praying no one would stop to talk to her. Of course, because God didn't like her too much today, she ran into Millicent Bulstrode. Literally.

"Ooph!—Oh, sorry, Millicent…" said Pansy, hoping the girl would just let it go.

"Well, well, well. Pansy Parkinson, long time no speak, eh?" Millicent grinned.

"I don't have time for your shit today Bulstrode, so if you want to just move that would be much appreciated," Pansy said through gritted teeth.

"Have you been _crying?" _Millicent asked gleefully.

"No! Why does everyone keep asking me that?" Pansy said angrily, pawing at her puffy eyes.

"Well, your eyes are all puffy and I just thought—"

"Well, you thought wrong, you complete and utter cow. Now MOVE," Pansy said as she pushed past the much larger girl.

Millicent stared after her, mouth open, as Pansy continued to walk down the seemingly endless hallway.

She was almost at History of Magic when someone called out her name again.

"Oh for God's sake, WHAT?" she snapped, turning around.

Daphne was staring at her with brows furrowed.

"Oh, Daph. Sorry, thought you were someone else." Pansy muttered.

"You ok?" Daphne asked, still looking uncertain.

"I'll be fine," Pansy said with her fakest, most cheerful smile.

"What happened to you at breakfast? You and Nott seemed to be hitting it off," Daphne asked her.

"I needed to go to the bathroom, and I just figured I'd be early for class…" Pansy lied

"Since when do you ever want to be early for class?" Daphne countered, knowing Pansy wasn't being honest with her.

"Since today, do I need a reason?" Pansy asked smoothly.

"No, of course not," Daphne said quickly. "But you should have seen how sweet Blaise was being this morning, I've got him so whipped…" and with that Daphne launched into another one of her Blaise gushes.

If Pansy didn't stop her, she would go on for another 20 minutes. As Pansy's head was already on the brink of exploding, she didn't feel too bad about telling her best friend off.

"Hey, Daphne?" she asked sweetly.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up," she smiled coldy.

"What's crawled up your ass, today?" asked Daphne.

Pansy shrugged. She never felt that she had to make excuses for her actions. She was Pansy Parkinson, what more excuse did anyone need?

"That time of the month?" Daphne asked her.

"Yeah, I woke up with it," Pansy replied, deciding to humor her friend.

Daphne nodded sympathetically. Finally, Professor Binns opened the door to the class and everyone filed in.

Pansy loved this class. Not for the subject, obviously, but because she could daydream the whole time and Binns would have no idea.

She sat down at her desk and immediately put her head in her hands, waiting for the teacher to start droning on about something useless. About five minutes in, the door opened and Draco Malfoy swaggered into the class.

The dull teacher didn't even look up from his book as Malfoy strutted in rather loudly. He shook his head, sniggering, and took a seat next to Goyle.

The Slytherins giggled and Malfoy smirked smugly. Pansy was not amused. She caught his eye and he sneered at her.

'_Idiot.' _

She remembered the first time she ever laid eyes on Draco Malfoy. His father had invited her father to the Malfoy manor to talk about something Ministry related. Of course she and her mother were invited, her eight year old self didn't have the option of staying home. The thought caused her to space out as she slowly began to recall the event.

'_Pansy, darling, come here, there's someone I want you to meet.'_

_Eight year old Pansy, clad in her favorite pink frilly dress and matching pink hair ribbons, came out from behind her mother._

'_Draco, come down here and meet your guest,' Narcissa Malfoy called up the stairs._

_Pansy looked up at the stairs and saw a blonde boy with deathly pale skin slowly walk down the stairs._

'_Is he sick?' Pansy whispered in her mother's ear. Priscilla shushed her._

'_Draco, this is Pansy Parkinson, she's come to play with you today,' Narcissa said to the blonde._

_His blue-grey eyes narrowed as he looked from Pansy to his mother._

'_Mother, she's a __**girl**__, I don't play with girls," he said haughtily._

'_Draco,' Narcissa warned._

'_Girls are no fun, she won't want to do anything except play with dolls!' he protested_

'_Draco, that is no way to talk to any guest, especially this lovely young lady. Now, you will take her upstairs to your room to play, or I'll send your father out here,' Narcissa said sternly._

_Draco's eyes widened slightly, and Pansy could tell he was not used to being threatened by his parents._

'_But—'_

'_Do not make me ask you again,' Narcissa said with a tone of icy finality._

'_Alright, alright,' he grumbled. 'Come on, then,' he said with a nod at Pansy._

_Pansy slowly let go of her mother's hand and immediately started biting her nails._

'_Pansy, don't bite your nails,' her mother said sharply._

_Pansy retracted her fingers as though they were on fire, and quickly followed the boy upstairs._

_He led her into a large, circular room that was much bigger then her own room at home. There was all sorts of expensive looking toys on the floor and on the shelves._

'_So, what did you say your name was again?' he asked her, snapping her out of her trance._

'_Oh, uh, Pansy…' she said shyly._

'_Really? I thought flowers were supposed to be pretty,' he smirked._

_Pansy's eyes widened at this boy's nerve. She felt her eyes fill with tears and her bottom lip stuck out._

'_Oh god, you're not going to cry are you?' he asked, rolling his eyes._

_Her lip quivered and a tear rolled down her cheek._

'_Oh…you really are crying…oh come on, don't, I was joking!' he said, looking slightly alarmed._

_Her lip continued to quiver as more tears rolled down her face._

"_It was a JOKE, Pansy, you know, ha ha?"_

"_It wasn't very funny," she said in a small, shaky voice._

"_Oh come on now, you're not THAT ugly…" he said in an attempt to make her feel better. _

_This only made her cry harder._

_Draco was in full alarm stage at this point._

"_Please stop crying," he said desperately._

_She almost felt sorry for this blissfully ignorant prat. Almost._

"_Seriously, if you don't stop, my mother will hear you and then she's going to come upstairs and I'll get my new broom taken away…"_

_Pansy continued to sob._

"_Shh! Fine, what do you want, a cookie or something?" he hissed._

_Pansy instantly stopped her wailing. "Do you have chocolate chip?" she asked hopefully._

"_Oh, so now you stop," he rolled his eyes at her._

"_Well, that depends, are you going to go get me a cookie?" she asked sweetly._

"_No, you're not touching any of my cookies," he snapped._

"_Fine, then. I guess I'll just go see your mother and ask if she can get me one because you won't. I can make myself cry on queue, you know," she said as seductively as any eight year old could._

_She took a deep breath as though she would start bawling again._

"_Alright, alright, I'm going!" he said, running out of his room._

_Pansy smiled to herself. "Sucker,"_

_Meanwhile, downstairs, Narcissa and Priscilla walked into the kitchen as Draco's hand was in the cookie jar._

"_Draco, what are you doing?" asked Narcissa._

"_Oh, er, I'm getting a cookie for Pansy…cause she's so…sweet," Draco mentally kicked himself. Now his mother was going to gush about how cute they were together, and the last thing Draco wanted was to go and get himself betrothed to that evil pug-face._

_Priscilla put her hand over her heart. "Oh, he is so charming, Narcissa," she gushed._

_Narcissa smirked at Draco. "Run along now, you musn't keep a lady waiting,"_

_Draco didn't need telling twice. He ran back up to his room._

"_Here's your stupid cookie, happy now?" he growled_

"_Yes, thank you," she curtsied. _

"_I don't like you," he scowled at her._

"_Yeah, I really don't like you either, but I like your cookies,' she smirked._

"_Pansy! Time to go!" her mother called up to her._

"_See you later," she said, skipping towards the door. Before leaving, she looked back._

"_By the way, it wouldn't kill you to get out in the sun, when I first saw you I thought you were sick with a disease," she smiled, then slammed the door._

_She relished in the shell-shocked look on his face as she slammed the door._

At the sound of shuffling and desks moving, Pansy was jerked out of her little flashback. She tossed her books into her bag and walked out into the hallway.

As she was walking with Daphne and Sally Anne, Draco walked by her and purposely bumped her hard on the shoulder.

She glared at the back of his bleach-blonde head.

"What's with him?" asked Sally Anne.

"Oh, you know, just being himself," Pansy shrugged.

"I thought you two were getting hot and heavy," winked Daphne.

"Not a chance, Daph, he's an idiot," Pansy said. She looked up at Draco, who had his arm draped around a 4th year Pansy knew named Lila Henderson. Draco was smirking and being all charming as the girl was giggling like a moron.

"But a very good looking one, I'll admit," Daphne sighed.

"You date him, then," Pansy smirked.

"Nah, I'll save that drama for you," she smirked back.

"Hey, don't you two have a prefect patrol tonight?" asked Sally Anne.

'_Damn my life.'_

"Well, that's just lovely," she said bitterly.

Sally Anne and Daphne looked at her quizzically.

"Are you sure you're okay?" asked Sally Anne.

"Yeah you're kind of off today…" Daphne said carefully.

"I'm fine guys, okay? I have to go, I'll see you in potions," she said as she took off towards the bathroom.

Once inside, she noticed her mascara was smudged and running.

'_Thanks for the heads-up, girls. Bitches,'_

She re-applied her make-up to cover her tear-streaked face.

'_Pans, you didn't like him then, and you certainly don't now, so suck it up! You can have any boy you want, so start making the stupid prat wish he was a stain on your bedsheets,'_

She smiled at herself in the mirror, and confidently swaggered out of the bathroom.

'_It's on, darling Draco.'_

**A/N: Hope you liked the little flashback scene, I love writing those. I'm going to be throwing a lot of flashbacks in, so stay tuned! Keep up the reading and reviewing, you guys are so great!**


	6. I Hate Everything About You

**A/N: Honestly, I never expected to get this type of positive response for this story, so thanks to you guys for inspiring me and making me brainstorm a bunch of new stuff for this story. I'm even thinking ahead to like, post-Hogwarts. Wow.**

**Anyways, here we go with chapter 6…**

Pansy strutted out of the bathroom, the fibers of her confidence fully restored after her morning meltdown. She strutted all the way to potions, smiling at all the boys.

"Hey, Pansy, hold up—"

Instead of hexing whoever stood in her way, this time she turned around with a smile. It was Nott.

"Hey, Theodore," she grinned.

"What happened to you this morning? You seemed upset," he asked, seeming genuinely concerned.

"Oh, nothing to worry your pretty little head over, mon cherie, I'm fine," she smiled sweetly.

"So, we have potions now, right?" he asked, ever timid.

"Indeed we do, care to escort me?" she said, linking her arm with his.

"S-sure," he stuttered. Pansy felt bad for the kid, it was obvious that he had no social upbringing. She heard his father was an elderly widow, but she knew all too well not to believe everything you hear.

They reached the dungeons to find their class waiting outside for Snape.

'_Hmm, maybe he's sick today…'_

Daphne and Sally Anne immediately came up to her, eyes full of worry. God forbid they had no one else to follow around when Pansy was absent.

"Are you okay now?" Daphne asked, pressing a hand to Pansy's forehead.

"I'm fine, for God's sake," she snapped, swatting Daphne's hand away. Daphne shrank back, knowing better then to test Pansy's ever-ready temper. Sally Anne was smirking at Pansy annoyingly.

"What are you so smug about?" Pansy asked her.

Sally Anne nodded at Pansy's arm, which was still linked with Nott's. Daphne caught on and smirked as well.

Pansy rolled her eyes at them and happened to catch Draco staring at her from across the dungeon. They locked eyes, neither one willing to back down. If looks could kill, they'd have both been dead.

Their eye contact was broken when Snape came gliding swiftly between the Slytherins.

"Enter," he instructed, as they all filed in and sat down. Pansy, of course, sat next to Nott, and directly in front of Draco. She didn't particularly care if she felt his wrath during their patrol tonight, she just loved making him squirm.

"Now, today you will begin making your most difficult and powerful potion yet. You will be making a Veritaserum, also known as a truth potion, over the course of the month," Snape droned.

Pansy was actually interested for once. God only knows what bile she could get people to spew with that thing. It would make for a _very _interesting game of Truth or Dare.

"You may work with a partner of your choice, but if there is any foolishness, I will re-assign you. Your instructions are on the board. Begin," he said in a tone that indicated he would rather be anywhere else in the world.

Pansy glanced at Daphne and Sally-Anne, who gave Pansy the nod to partner with Nott. She flashed them a smirk and turned to face Nott.

"Hey there partner," she smiled. He grinned sheepishly in response.

"Okay, so…well I guess we start with powdered root of pussy willow…" he started.

"How appropriate," Draco sniggered from behind.

Pansy gritted her teeth and tried to ignore him. Nott flushed slightly, but continued mashing the root.

Pansy crossed her legs and folded her arms while he did all the work. Pansy Parkinson never lifted a finger in her life, and anyone that expected her to do so was completely insane.

She yawned, examining her pink nails and occasionally nodding and smiling at Nott. She was growing rather bored, and the time seemed to crawl.

"I wonder," drawled a voice from behind her, "if this truth potion will get Pansy to admit to everyone what a little slut she is. Oh wait, everyone already knows,"

She could practically _feel_ the smirk forming on his cold lips, but his words hardly even grazed her skin. She lazily turned to face him, as if addressing him was just another chore she had to do.

"Is that the best you could come up with? 'What a little _slut_ I am?' If you can't think of anything worse to say, then you must be losing your touch, just like your dear old daddy," she said venomously. Comebacks tended to roll right off her tongue without her having to think much about them. She knew how much it irked him to bring up his father, having recently been accused of being a death eater and shattering the Malfoy reputation.

He stiffened and gave her a death glare. "What did you just say, Parkinson?"

She rolled her eyes. "You heard me, Malfoy. Don't make yourself look like an even bigger idiot with one of your stupid 'My father…' remarks," she sighed, turning back around.

And for maybe the first time in his life, Draco Malfoy shut up.

The other kids in the class, having overheard the conversation, were now smiling at Pansy and sniggering at Malfoy. She would definitely pay for this one.

The bell rang, and Pansy immediately got up and walked out, not sparing Malfoy a second glance.

Daphne caught up to her. "What was _that_ all about?" she asked excitedly.

"You know, just putting the little bastard in his place," she shrugged nonchalantly.

"It was fabulous, you shut him right up!" Daphne gushed.

"Well, I'm sure I'll be feeling his violent temper tonight, which won't be good seeing as I'll be alone with him," Pansy sighed.

"Oh yeah, like your so beat up over having to spend four hours alone with Draco Malfoy," Daphne giggled.

"You and Nott seemed pretty cozy, though," Sally Anne joined in the conversation after catching up to them.

"Maybe, but I'm keeping my options open," said Pansy.

"Well, you'll be able to explore _plenty_ of options Friday night," Daphne sing-songed.

Pansy furrowed her thin eyebrows. "What's Friday night?"

"Only a huge party in the common room, it's hosted by some 7th years. It's for 5th years and up," Daphne explained.

"Might be fun," Sally Anne shrugged.

"Or ridiculously boring," Pansy yawned for emphasis.

"I hear Crabbe is sneaking in crates of firewhiskey," Daphne said.

"Well, that will shake things up I'm sure," Sally Anne said.

"Alcohol always makes things more interesting," Pansy smirked. The girls nodded in agreement.

Later on that evening, Pansy was getting herself ready for prefect patrol. She wasn't exactly sure why, seeing as her and Draco weren't even speaking, much less making out.

Still, a girl must always look her best under any circumstances. Besides, she wanted to make his body ache for her just by looking at her. She had to hand it to herself, even in her school robes she looked pretty great. She rolled up her skirt and unbuttoned her blouse a little.

'_Bust is a must'_ her mother always said.

She walked down to the common room to find Draco talking to Goyle. She cleared her throat, causing them both to turn around.

Goyle was clearly undressing her with his eyes, but Draco merely gave her a brief once-over. Although she could have sworn she saw his eyes linger on her chest.

"Alright Parkinson, let's get this over with," he drawled. The two walked out of the common room and began patrolling the halls in dead silence.

She would occasionally glance over at him, but he stared straight ahead the whole time. She was expecting an outburst, but instead got silence.

"It's freezing down here," she said, rubbing her shoulders. He didn't even flinch.

"I wish I wore a different top. This one is so thin, I'm getting goosebumps," she tried again to no avail.

Finally, after over 45 minutes of talking to herself, she stopped. He turned around.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm not sorry you know, about what I said earlier. I know that's what you want me to say, you want the satisfaction of me groveling to you. Well, it's not happening," she said, standing firmly with her arms across her chest.

He raised his brows at her.

"You're a little snake, you know that? You walk all over people, you and your whole family. You think your God's gift to earth and women, and that you're infallible. You pull this unbelievable crap, like telling me who I can and can't see, then you go off with another girl every night of the week!"

She really didn't mean for all this to come out, but it was like her mouth was a dam and her words were the overflow of water.

"Who do you think you are? Do you even think about anyone but yourself? Like me, for example? Do you stop and think how you affect _me? _You're a complete tyrant!"

She didn't even realize how frustrated she had been with her and Draco's 'situation'. The fact that she actually cared what he did was beginning to worry her immensely, so she stopped herself before more word vomit escaped.

He looked at her, his mouth twitching as though trying not to smirk for once.

"Takes one to know one," he said coldly, and continued to walk down the hall.

She gaped at his retreating back.

"_Excuse_ me_?" _she said through gritted teeth.

"You heard me, Parkinson, don't make yourself look like a bigger idiot," he called back. She could tell by his taunting tone of voice that he had a big fat smirk plastered on his stuck-up face.

She ran up to him, grabbed him by the arm and wrenched him into a side corridor.

"I knew you couldn't keep away _too_ long," he sneered.

"What is wrong with you? Seriously, what?" she asked him furiously.

"Pansy, it's so obvious you're threatened by me. That's why you're a bitch. You don't want me running your show as alpha. You wanna keep your status, I get it. That's why we've been hooking up, right? Unless of course, I 'affect you' or something," he smirked teasingly.

She was so mad she couldn't even think of a good comeback. She stood there, opening and closing her mouth like a fish. She glared daggers at him.

"Fuck you," she hissed.

"Maybe later," he responded, and threw her against the wall.

"What the hell--"

She was cut off by his lips jamming into hers. Her brain cramped and her anger melted away. She couldn't remember why she had even been mad in the first place.

She ran her fingers through his silky hair, and he rested his on her slender hips. She gripped his shoulders as he pushed her back up against the wall.

She couldn't remember much after that. All she remembered was waking up on one of the plush green sofas in the common room at about 4 am.

The embers in the fire were slowly dying, and she was the only one down there. Or so she thought.

"Sleep well, princess?" came a cold drawl that made her jump. She turned to see him slouching in an arm chair with his head on his hand. Even when he was slouching, he managed to look poised and dramatic.

"Draco, I—what happened?" she asked groggily, raising her head to look at him.

"Good stuff. But I won't bore you with details," he grinned.

She flopped back down on the couch and groaned. God only knows what she did. Then she remembered something.

"Did you carry me back here?" she asked in surprise.

"Don't flatter yourself, you must have slept walked," he said quickly. In typical Draco fashion, he added "You weren't _that _good," with a sneer.

"But I blacked out…" she trailed off.

"Yeah, thanks to me," he smirked.

"Oh shut up, I probably did something that I'll regret once I remember what it was," she laughed a little, burying her face in the pillow. Had she been looking up, she would have seen him smile at her comment. Not smirk, smile.

Of course, had she been looking up, he wouldn't have even done it in the first place. And he would never admit that he actually did carry her back to the common room. Or that he put her on the couch and stayed with her all night so she wouldn't be alone when she woke up.

No, he'd be taking that to the grave.


	7. 9 Crimes

A/N: Oh man

**A/N:** **Oh man. I feel like the worst person in the entire world, I can't believe I let not updating go for so long! School has been absolutely RIDICULOUS. I was in the school play and then with end-of-the-year crunch time stuff going on AND finals, I had no time for anything. Luckily, this is my last week of school, so consider me officially back! I really do love writing this story, and I love all of you for your encouragement. **

**So here is your long overdue chapter seven!**

He wasn't sure what came over him.

Draco Malfoy did not do nice things. He wasn't particularly considerate or polite, only when it was required for political reasons. He certainly didn't carry girls to bed after he had his way with them. He could have just left her there. He probably _should_ have just left her there, passed out on the floor. It wasn't his fault he was so damn good at…pleasuring…girls.

He didn't know what the hell possessed him, but the next thing he knew, she was in his arms and he was carrying her back to the common room.

Since when was he so chivalrous? Oh, right, never.

There was just something about her, lying there on the cold stone floor, that wouldn't let him leave.

She was beautiful, he wouldn't deny it. She hadn't always been that way though. He used to join in with everyone else when they called her Pug-face Parkinson. They were all eating their words now.

It was like someone gave her a potion that made her both pretty and mature over the summer. When she returned to school for fourth year, she was a new person, and he made it his mission deflower her.

He remembered his first time with Pansy. It was good, but he didn't feel accomplished or proud. Instead, he felt a sinking feeling at the pit of his stomach.

Draco Malfoy actually felt _guilty._ It was ridiculous, he knew. She let him do it, she wanted it. And they had done it a few times, too. It wasn't their first time, but last night, looking at her on the floor, pale and fragile, it was the first time he really ever stopped to think about his actions. He felt like he had stolen something from this girl and she would never get it back.

So for some reason he felt obligated to wait with her till she woke up, and it eased his guilt. Obviously he couldn't be expected to spend more than a few hours feeling sorry for other people. He had his own needs to worry about, after all. He knew she would see it that way, too. She had this strange way of understanding him, something no one had ever really done.

He _hated _it. She could read him like a book, and it never took her too long to figure him out. He was supposed to be able to completely hide all his emotions, just push everything out. No one was supposed to see him even the slightest bit vulnerable or affected by anything, and yet there she was, knowing exactly what made him tick.

This thing with her had to stop. He knew he shouldn't have gotten so upset over her and Nott, but the way he looked at it, Nott was trying to steal his favorite toy. _No one_ stole from Draco Malfoy and got away with it, and Pansy had to be reminded of that. He realized now that this was a mistake. He should have stopped it then, because now she probably thought he _liked_ her.

'_Ha, like I'm going to take __**that**__ bullet,'_

Nott could have her if he wanted her so damn bad, Draco really had no use for her.

He saw her stir on the sofa, but he didn't lift his head up from his hand.

"Sleep well, princess?" he asked her with a smirk.

She whipped around to face him, looking confused and tired.

"Draco, I—what happened?" she asked, looking dazed.

He grinned. "Good stuff, but I won't bore you with the details,"

He was never one to resist saying something crass.

She rolled her eyes at him and groaned. "Did you carry me back up here?" she asked suspiciously.

He definitely wasn't expecting that.

"Don't flatter yourself, you must've slept-walked. You weren't that good," he added in with a smirk.

"But I blacked out—"

"Yeah, thanks to me," he smirked. This was really too easy.

"Oh shut up, I probably did something that I'll regret once I remember what it was," she laughed a little, burying her face in the pillow.

He felt a smile play at his lips, and he didn't know why. He tried to suppress it, but when he heard her actually laughing, he found it hard to restrain. She wasn't looking, so he decided to just let it go. He hadn't really smiled in a long time. It was so foreign to him.

Pansy rolled off the sofa and walked over to him.

"I'm going upstairs, I'll see you later, Dragon," she said, running her slender fingers through his hair.

He didn't respond; he didn't even flinch. He had the nagging feeling that she knew he really did carry her back. Of course, he knew she would bring it up. They didn't talk about things like that. They didn't really talk much at all actually.

Lost in his thoughts, he drifted off to sleep. He was awoken some time later by Crabbe, telling him they had class in 30 minutes.

Draco groaned and went upstairs, bumping into some fourth year, whose name he couldn't remember.

"Draco, darling!" the random girl squealed, throwing her arms around his neck.

He gingerly detached her arms from his neck, completely ignoring her, and continued up the stairs.

He again bumped into someone, and it was the very last person he wanted to bump into. He looked down into the tiny porcelain face of Pansy, and momentarily locked his stormy eyes with her emerald ones.

"Hi," she said breathlessly, running her fingers through her silky brown hair.

"Parkinson," he nodded curtly, and bypassed her without another look.

He was angry. The way she acted towards him was confusing him, and this in turn angered him. He was used to having everything handed to him cut and dry, he didn't like having to sort anything out himself.

He finally reached his dorm, and went into the bathroom to wash up. He stared at his handsome reflection angrily.

'_Get your shit together, Malfoy, you have a reputation to uphold,'_

He pushed all thoughts of her and the night before from his mind, and dragged himself downstairs to breakfast.

He was surrounded by his usual cronies, and she was at her usual section of the table surrounded by those vultures she called girlfriends.

He couldn't help but let his eyes drift towards her. She was sitting there, laughing loudly to draw attention to herself. Daphne was at her side like a bloody lapdog. And worse, _Nott_ was on her other side, listening intently to whatever bull crap was coming out of her big mouth.

His insides burned with hate. He hated that sniveling Nott, he hated that stupid, babbling idiot Daphne, and he especially hated that stupid bitch Pansy. He hated everyone.

And to him, that was a colossal relief.

--

The next couple of days passed uneventfully for Pansy. She was happy when Friday finally came. She really just wanted to sleep, and had completely forgotten about the stupid party taking place in the common room.

"So, tonight's the night!" Daphne gabbed.

"For what?" Pansy asked.

"Oh come on, it's a big party with alcohol, something always happens," said Daphne.

"I would really just love to sleep," said Pansy.

"You wanna know what I think?" Sally-Anne asked.

"No," Pansy smirked.

"I think Theodore's going to make it official with you," she smiled.

Pansy hadn't thought about this possibility.

"What?"

"Don't you think he will? It's so obvious he likes you," Sally-Anne continued excitedly.

"Oh, that would be so adorable!" agreed Daphne. "You two would be great together, he needs a status boost,"

Pansy had already pondered this thought when she and Nott first started talking. He might hurt her reputation, and she wasn't willing to risk that. No one really liked him much. Still, he was definitely on her radar.

"Whatever, we'll see," she concealed. "Let's go,"

The three went downstairs to a packed common room. People had already started drinking the fire whiskey in crates under a table. She grabbed one and flopped down on a chair.

"There he is," Daphne whispered to her.

She looked to where Daphne was looking, and saw Theodore at the bottom of the staircase, most likely looking for Pansy.

He spotted her and made his way over.

"Hey, Pans!" he said cheerfully. He was never really cheerful, just painfully quiet.

"Hey, Theodore, rockin' party, huh?" she said sarcastically.

"It's awesome! Have you had the fire whiskey?" he asked excitedly.

'_Ah, so that's the cause,'_

"Working on it," she smiled.

"Well that's great! Hey, do you maybe want to dance with me?" he asked without a trace of embarrassment.

Pansy's eyes widened.

"Theodore, there's no one dancing," her voice was low.

"I know, so what? We can get everyone else going!" he grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the fire place.

'_Oh my god, just kill me now,'_ she prayed. She was absolutely mortified. She didn't do intimate things like this. Not unless there was an ulterior motive, and that usually meant fooling around.

As horrified as she was, a tiny part of her found it endearing. No guy had ever been sweet to her like this before, and she liked it.

Throwing caution into the wind, she put her arms around his neck, and let him hold her waist. She saw Draco in the corner behind her with some girl, shaking his head and smirking at her. He mouthed the word "whipped" to her, and Pansy flipped him off.

After dancing with him for a few more minutes, she pulled away. "I'll be right back, okay? I'm gonna get a drink," she smiled, patting the side of his face.

""Kay," he sighed blissfully, and sat down on the couch. Pansy was finding him cuter and cuter, almost like a little pet project.

She made her way over to the crate of whiskey, reaching under the table to pull one out.

"That was touching, really. Very _romantic_, Parkinson," she heard the all too familiar sneer behind her.

"Not like you'd know anything about it, Malfoy," she said without even turning around.

"Well, you know—" he began.

"Shut your mouth, Malfoy. You aren't going to mess this up," she snapped as she walked past him, leaving him dumbfounded.

She smiled proudly to herself, and walked back to where Nott was lying on the sofa. She laid down on top of him.

"Hi, miss me?" she asked playfully.

"A lot, actually," he nodded.

"Do you wanna go somewhere more private?" she asked seductively.

"Actually, Pans, I've been meaning to tell you something," he said, the old nervousness returning to his voice.

She noticed Daphne and Sally-Anne stop talking to listen.

"Well, I don't know how to make this all cute and romantic like you girls want, so I'll just come right out and say it. I really like you," he began.

She smiled. "I really like you too," she said. She meant it.

"So, I was wondering…."

'_Wow. He really is going to do it. The kid has more guts then I gave him credit for,'_

"Will you…."

'_Ok, maybe I don't want this…ok I really don't think I want this…what am I going to say??'_

"Will you be my girlfriend?" he finished, breathing a deep sigh of relief.

'_??'_

She felt her brain cramp up. She was suddenly at a loss for words, staring at him with her mouth opening and closing like an idiot. He was looking nervous, probably regretting the whole thing.

Before she even knew it was coming, it had already left her mouth.

"Yes,"

**A/N: I hope that Draco's point of view didn't throw anyone off in the beginning. I thought you might want to know his perspective on the whole thing for once. I will probably do that from time to time, too, but only for important stuff. Thanks again for waiting so long, you are truly loved!**


	8. Drowning In You

A/N: Hey everyone

**A/N: Hey everyone! Summer is officially here for me, which is good news for you ). I love all of you for your support on this story, your kindness is inspiring. My chapters will be longer now then they have been, since the story is gaining momentum now. **

**Disclaimer: Any quotes you might recognize from OotP belong to JK Rowling.**

A million different thoughts surged through Pansy's head at that moment. Had she really just said yes to be Theodore Nott's girlfriend?

'_What the __**hell**__ did you just get yourself into?'_

She had no clue what possessed her to say yes. She didn't want a boyfriend, she didn't want commitment, and she certainly didn't want Theodore Nott.

She became aware of everyone's eyes on her, not noticing that everyone had been listening. She had no choice to but to act on her word. She grabbed Nott and kissed him full on the mouth, much to his delight. She heard the catcalls and wolf-whistles from the boys in the crowd, likely because Nott was finally "getting some" as they liked to say. Pansy thought the whole thing was ridiculous, but she aimed to please.

Her eyes traveled to Draco, who was leaning against the wall in the corner of the room, staring at her with his eyebrows raised in amusement.

Once the attention had been diverted from her and Nott, she pulled on his hand and led him up to the boy's dorm. Nott looked like he was in his glory.

She threw open the door to the dorm and threw him on the bed. She began kissing him, taking off his tie.

"I have to say, Miss Parkinson, I'm honored to be in this position. You usually save it for Malfoy, right?" he winked playfully.

She gave him her best fake smile. "Malfoy who?" she shrugged and continued to kiss him. She tried to get the picture of herself with Draco out of her head, and focused on the boy underneath her.

"I've wanted this for so long," he murmured. She smiled and nodded appreciatively, but she couldn't say the same for her. She really didn't want it at all, and she never had. She only wanted one boy, but she knew she couldn't _really_ have him. The boy she wanted was far too detached and cold and only interested in sex.

At least she could hide with Nott. She would never admit that she suddenly wanted Draco Malfoy as more than a sex buddy, and now she wouldn't have to.

She slowly unbuttoned his shirt and desperately tried to push the image of Draco underneath her from her mind.

"Are you alright?" Nott asked uncertainly.

"Why do you ask?" she mumbled, focusing on undoing the buttons on his shirt.

"You seem distracted," he said.

She stopped playing with his buttons. "You know what, baby, I am pretty tired. Do you want to pick this up another time?"

He looked disappointed but agreed. She rolled off him and he got up, buttoning his shirt back up.

"I'm sorry," she said, and she actually meant it. "I'm just not into it tonight, it wouldn't be that fun for you. Just wait till I'm recharged," she smirked suggestively.

"I can't wait," he said honestly.

"I know you can't baby, and you know I want it too, right?" she lied, trying to reassure him so she didn't blow her cover.

"Of course," he said, kissing her cheek. "I'll see you back downstairs,"

"Actually, I think I'm just going to go to bed for the night. I'll see you at breakfast tomorrow," she said.

"Oh, alright then," he said, and he shut the door quietly.

Pansy went back to her own dorm and flopped down on the bed. She groaned at her current situation.

'_Deception always catches up to you, Parkinson. Always.'_

She rolled over and tried to drift off into sleep, but instead she tossed and turned.

About 20 minutes after Nott had left, she heard the door open again. She figured it was one of the girls, so she pretended to be asleep. The last thing she wanted to talk about was what _didn't_ happen with Nott.

"That was a nice little show you put on, Parkinson," said a familiar cold drawl. Pansy immediately sat up and whipped around to look at the door.

"Malfoy, what the hell? How did you get up here?" she asked in astonishment.

"If you skip the first two steps going up to the girl's dorm, you can avoid the charm," he smirked. Pansy suddenly felt violated.

"What do you want?" she asked angrily. She was never polite when it came to her beauty sleep, no matter how good looking the boy was who was interrupting it.

"Oh, nothing really. Just to ask what the hell you think your doing?"

"What are you talking about?"

"What do you think, Parkinson? You're not seriously going out with Nott are you? Lowering your standards a bit, I'd say," he shook his head.

"Hmph. I wouldn't exactly say lowering," she glared at him.

"Watch yourself, Parkinson. Just so you know, if you're his _girlfriend _now, then our little arrangement is off," he said calmly, spitting out the word 'girlfriend' like venom.

She had expected this. "Fine by me. You were getting boring, I need new meat" she said, studying her nails.

"Likewise," he shot back smoothly.

"Just curious, why are you so anxious to end it? You have affairs with people's girlfriends all the time," she asked.

"I won't touch anything that Nott has, including you. You're damaged goods to me now," he said, turning to leave.

Luckily for Pansy, she was too tired to give in to her lust for him, so she didn't argue.

"Try not to miss me too much," she smirked, only half-joking.

"That won't be a problem," he smirked back, closing the door behind him.

She rested her head back on the pillow, a million thoughts running through her mind. He would replace her easily, and she would just have to move on and bury whatever she had felt for him, even if it was just lust. Her drowsiness soon kicked back in and she fell into an uneasy sleep.

--

Several months had passed since the party. Pansy was still going out with Nott, and she found she actually liked him. It hadn't hurt her reputation as bad as she thought it would, and it boosted his. He at least proved to be a reliable distraction from Draco.

She was proud of herself for going three whole months without cheating on him. She didn't know if she could do it, but now that Draco had found a new plaything, it became easier.

She knew inside that Draco was trying to one-up her, and she was trying to do the same to him. Whenever she saw Draco with his new replacement for her, Astoria Greengrass, her insides burned with jealously and she would make a show out of whatever she was doing with Nott.

She still couldn't believe that Daphne's little sister, a THIRD year no less, had taken her place as Draco's number one squeeze. She almost felt betrayed, but then she remembered that Daphne never really knew that anything went on between Pansy and Draco.

When she would hold hands with Nott, she could feel Draco's eyes burning into her. They hardly spoke to each other. For Draco, it was probably because he didn't care. For Pansy, it was because it hurt too much to talk to him.

So instead, she sucked up all her anguish and channeled it into sex with Nott. Her mother would be appalled if she saw her daughter now.

Their prefect patrols were usually silent, except for when Draco would sneer and ask "How's Nott doing?"

She would respond with something like "Better than you," and drop the conversation. She never asked about Astoria, because she didn't want to hear whatever bile would spill from his mouth or hers. She knew Astoria was beautiful and mature for her age, but Pansy had always remembered her being terribly boring and quiet.

One day, she was approached by her new favorite teacher, Professor Umbridge. Umbridge wanted to appoint her to the new Inquisitorial Squad she was forming, in support of the Ministry and to keep everyone in line.

Pansy accepted, since her father worked for the Ministry. As a bonus, she would get to dock points off other prefects, preferably Hermione Granger.

Of course, Malfoy had been chosen as well. No surprise there, since Lucius Malfoy was one of the biggest names at the Ministry. 'Was' being the key word. And God only knows why, but Crabbe and Goyle were also chosen.

Pansy wasn't exactly thrilled at the prospect of working with Malfoy and the two bumbling idiots, but she never passed up a chance to be in control of people.

She found it was similar to being a prefect. They basically patrolled during their free periods, making sure people were in line. She loved having double the authority, which meant double the points she could knock off Gryffindor.

She tried to persuade Nott to join with her, but he said he wasn't cut out for that kind of thing like she was.

By the time the first patrol had rolled around, they were already back from their Christmas holiday, and it was the middle of January.

Pansy would gleefully strut through the hallways, docking points off people who were considered "breaking the rules", even though Pansy broke many of the rules on a daily basis. She could get away with it of course, because she was Pansy Parkinson.

During the first week of February, Hagrid had returned after his leave of absence, much to the dismay of the Slytherins. Pansy and Daphne walked together down to the woods for their first Care of Magical Creatures class without professor Grubblyplank.

"Oh god, the oaf is back is he?" Pansy scrunched her nose in disgust.

Daphne did the same. "I thought they sacked him,"

"Well, if Umbridge does her job, he won't even last past April," Pansy smirked.

Hagrid informed them all that they would be working in the woods, since whatever they were working with 'preferred the dark'. Pansy didn't do 'nature' or 'wilderness'; that was for poor people, like Hagrid or Potter.

"What did he say prefers the dark?" she heard Malfoy ask Crabbe and Goyle, sounding rather panic-stricken. He always was a big chicken.

She rolled her eyes as the class descended into the Forbidden Forest. Malfoy, of course, was full of interrogation.

"And you're sure they're trained? Only it wouldn't be the first you've brought wild things to class…" he said, the panic in his voice more prominent.

"'O Course they're trained!" Hagrid huffed indignantly.

"What happened to your face then?" Malfoy demanded. Pansy rolled her eyes, he could be so childish.

Hagrid yelled at him to stop asking stupid questions and mind his own business. Malfoy just smirked and continued to follow the class into the woods.

Pansy scrunched her nose again as she entered the Forest. Daphne grabbed her arm to steady herself, quietly yelping when she heard a noise in the distance.

Pansy heard rustling in the bushes as Daphne clutched her arm tighter. She even saw the bushes moving, but nothing emerged from them. Harry Potter's eyes seemed to widen at the bush, and they were following something.

Pansy, along with most of the class, was thoroughly confused.

Hagrid addressed Harry and Neville, asking them if they could see 'it'.

As usual, Draco said out loud what was on everyone's minds. "Excuse me, but what exactly are we supposed to be seeing?" he sneered.

Hagrid pointed at some sort of carcass that appeared to be eating itself. Pansy felt like she was going to throw up. Daphne was cutting off the circulation in Pansy's arm and covering her own mouth.

Hagrid went on to talk about these invisible creatures called "Thestrals". He went on for a good ten minutes before he was interrupted by the tell-tale "_hem, hem_" of Professor Umbridge.

Umbridge talked to Hagrid very slowly, articulating every word as though she were talking to a child. Pansy giggled.

Umbridge began writing crude notes on her clipboard as Hagrid attempted to explain what they were learning about in the class.

Pansy giggled harder and louder, and Malfoy got an excited look on his face after overhearing what Umbridge was saying.

Umbridge approached Pansy next. "Do you find it difficult to understand Hagrid?" she asked Pansy.

Pansy laughed cruelly at this. "Well no, it sounds like…grunting most of the time," she answered.

Hagrid began babbling about telling Thestrals what direction to go in and that they will listen.

"Assuming they can understand you, of course," said Draco loudly.

Pansy couldn't help another wave of giggles that passed through her. Malfoy looked at her, probably surprised that she was laughing at his joke. She was surprised herself.

Umbridge smiled at them and continued to make rude comments, leaving Pansy in a silent giggle fit while Malfoy sniggered maliciously.

After the class finally ended, Pansy made her way back up to the castle for lunch. She walked with Daphne and Blaise, managing to dislocate Nott from her hip for once.

"That Hagrid is SUCH an idiot, I hope Umbridge sacks him right away!" Daphne huffed.

"He should have been sacked two years ago," Blaise agreed.

Pansy was about to ascend the stone steps to the castle, when she saw Draco leaning against a wall in the courtyard with Crabbe and Goyle.

"Er, I think I dropped my quill. You guys go on, I'll meet you in there," Pansy lied.

Daphne and Blaise just shrugged and continued towards the Great Hall.

Pansy sauntered over to Draco and his cronies.

He looked up when he felt a presence and smirked when he saw it was her.

He glared at Crabbe and Goyle. "Beat it," he ordered sharply.

The two left without hesitation, and Pansy was left alone with him.

"Took you long enough," said Draco.

"Well, we've both moved on, there was no reason for us to interact," she shrugged indifferently.

"Speaking of, how is darling, dull Astoria doing?" she continued sweetly.

Draco shrugged. "Better than you'd expect, actually. She's a rather dirty little girl," he smirked.

"Draco, she's _thirteen_," said Pansy in disgust.

"So what? Are you jealous?" he smirked knowingly.

"Don't flatter yourself. And you thought _I_ lowered my standards," she laughed bitterly.

"To each is own, Flower," he said, giving his eyebrows a quick lift.

"Are you going to get her anything for Valentine's day?" she asked, her curiosity getting the best of her.

"Are you serious? No," he scoffed.

"Nice," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Well, what's your precious boyfriend getting you," he sneered.

"We're going to Madam Puddifoot's since it's a Hogsmead weekend," she smiled triumphantly. He rolled his eyes.

"For God's sake, the two of you are bloody sickening, really," he scrunched his nose.

"Jealous?" she asked in a sing-song voice.

He just shook his head, smirking. "Not on your life, Parkinson,"

"Right. Well, nice talking to you, Malfoy. Good to know you're still an insufferable ass," she smiled, and strutted away.

He watched her go, shaking his head and smirking.

"When are you going to just admit it?" he called after her.

She whipped around. "Admit what?"

He raised his eyebrows. "Ah, still in denial are we?" he asked smugly.

"What are you talking about, idiot?" she snapped, her patience wearing thin quickly.

He scoffed at her impatience. "You want me so bad, it's killing you,"

She stopped, feeling like her blood had run cold. Did he really know, or was he just being his usual, cocky self?

"You know it's not as good with Nott. You know it, Pansy," he continued.

She scowled at him. "You don't know anything,"

"Oh, but that's where you're wrong. I know a lot of things," he said, looking at the expensive silver band on his finger.

"You don't," she argued, walking away.

She couldn't believe how arrogant he was. She also couldn't believe how right he was. But she wouldn't give in, because she was Pansy Parkinson, and Parkinson's _never_ gave in to anyone, no matter how rich or good-looking.

Well, maybe if they were really rich.

**A/N: Bear with me you guys, I'm trying to kinda get through 5****th**** year quickly, because 6****th**** year is when all the action is, and I want that to be more of the focus. But don't worry, things are definitely heating up next chapter. (:**


	9. Within Temptation

A/N: Ah, I feel like I'm rushing things with 5th year and boring everyone, but I feel like not much went on for Draco in the f

**A/N: Ah, I feel like I'm rushing things with 5****th**** year and boring everyone, but I feel like not much went on for Draco in the fifth book besides his usual bullying antics and his dad's issues. Sixth book was more interesting ;)**

**P.S- Conquereor Worm- That's a very good point (Nott seeing the Thestrals), and I completely skipped that part when I skimmed that chapter. You're right, it definitely would make sense. If I had remembered that, I would have incorporated it in, but I'll use it for future ref! Glad you like the story though (:**

Before Pansy knew it, it was Valentine's Day, which meant her first actual 'date' with Nott. The thought of Valentine's Day actually sickened her. People buying each other chocolate and flowers and other ridiculous frilly things to prove their undying love for each other. Her parents had never done it, so why should she?

"I can't believe I'm going on a date," she groaned to Daphne while getting ready that morning.

"Are you serious? What's wrong with a date?" Daphne asked, clearly shocked. She had been on many dates with her _dearly beloved _Blaise.

"Because I don't _like_ dating," she whined.

"Then why the hell is he your boyfriend?" Daphne asked, now confused.

"I really don't know," Pansy said, more to herself then to Daphne.

"Well, you should probably figure it out, since we're leaving in five minutes," Daphne said, dragging a brush though her blonde hair.

"Ugh, fuck my life," Pansy groaned again.

"Oh yes, your life is so terrible, Pans," Sally Anne smirked from her other side.

"It _is,_" Pansy whined. "My mother hasn't sent me new clothes in two months, so I have nothing decent to wear to this stupid date, and I haven't had a good shag in about 2 weeks," she huffed, crossing her arms and examining herself in the mirror.

"Poor baby," Daphne simpered sarcastically.

"Oh shut up. Listen, as soon as this thing is done, meet me at the Three Broomsticks, or I might just die, got it?" Pansy commanded.

"Pans, do you even like this guy?" Daphne asked.

"I do…I guess," Pansy insisted weakly.

"Then why have you been making every effort to ditch him lately?" said Daphne.

'_Because he's not Draco Malfoy!' _she felt like screaming.

"He's just…rather clingy…and that's…well, icky, you know?" she said.

Sally Anne shook her head. "I don't get you. Just break up with him,"

"I can't, see, I have this bet going with some people…" Pansy joked.

"You're a bitch, you know that?" Daphne smiled

"I've been told. Usually by you," Pansy smirked.

"Just go, will you? You're supposed to be meeting him now,"

She groaned. She felt like she was waiting for death.

Ok, maybe that was a tad extreme.

She slowly advanced down the staircase and saw Nott waiting for her at the bottom.

"Hey, beautiful," he smiled, taking her hand and kissing it. Pansy's insides squirmed.

"Hey baby," she smiled. She couldn't believe what a transformation the once mute boy had made. He had gone from being the lowliest of Slytherins, even surpassing Crabbe and Goyle, to being generally accepted. And it was all because of her.

'_See? Now you will have good karma,' _she thought happily.

By the time they had reached Madam Puddifoot's, she wasn't sure how much more of this 'date' she could stomach.

He looked at her so intensely that she felt like he could read her mind. She tried not to look at him fully without coming off as rude.

"You look amazing," he said, taking her hand.

"Thanks," she smiled, slowly retracting her hand and running it through her hair.

"So, what would you like to drink?" he asked.

'_Firewhiskey. In copious amounts'_

"Just water will be fine," she smiled stiffly.

He ordered two lemon waters from the waitress and directed his attention back to her.

"Are you alright? You seem a bit…distracted," he asked uncertainly.

"The only thing distracting me is your good looks," she smiled seductively.

'_Pansy, you are a fox'_

He turned about three shades of red and began playing with his ear.

"Well, your beauty is overwhelming," he said, kissing her hand again.

Pansy tried with every fiber of her being not to cringe.

"I have to use the bathroom," she said, forcing a smile. "I'll be right back,"

"Can't wait," he smiled. She nodded stiffly and immediately retreated to the bathroom.

She burst through the door, hoping no one else was in there, and immediately located the mirror. She was actually _sweating_. Parkinson's do not do such behemoth things. They _glow, _not sweat. This was embarrassing.

She contemplated drowning herself in the toilet when she noticed a door in the corner of the bathroom.

'_Sweet salvation!'_

She immediately went outside to breathe some fresh February air, and by some miracle, spotted Daphne walking by with a group of Slytherins.

"Daph!" she whispered urgently.

Daphne continued bouncing along.

"DAPHNE!"

The bouncing blonde whipped around.

"Pansy? Is that you?"

She rolled her eyes at her moronic best friend.

"Of course it's me you twat, get over here!"

"What are you doing out here? Why aren't you in there with Nott?"

"Because this date is an absolute nightmare,"

"What's wrong?"

"Well, he keeps being _mushy,_"

"Mushy?"

"Yes, like he's that muggle person…Stakespear or whatever his name is,"

"Shakespeare?"

"Whatever, the point is, he thinks we're bloody Romeo and Juliet and I can't take it!"

"What is doing, exactly?"

"Oh, telling me how I'm overwhelmingly beautiful I am and kissing my hand,"

"What's wrong with that? That's sweet! I wish Blaise would say stuff like that,"

"When he ordered our drinks he said to the waitress: 'And a coffee for my gorgeous girlfriend'!"

"How dare he, that bastard,"

"Ugh, screw you,"

Daphne smirked and shook her head. Suddenly, Pansy noticed a certain blonde walking by across the street with his arm around a girl.

'_Shit'_

"Oh, there's my sister. Can you believe she's dating Malfoy of all people?" Daphne rolled her eyes.

"Dating?"

"Well, that's what Astoria says. I doubt that's what he's calling it though," Daphe shrugged. "Let me just call them over,"

"No!" said Pansy a little too quickly.

Daphne turned around, puzzled. "No?"

"Uh…I mean, noooo, I have to go back to Nott, I've been gone nearly ten minutes," Pansy lied.

"Oh, that's right. You'd better go, I'll meet you later,"

"Bye," Pansy sulked, and walked back in to the café.

To her relief, Nott was still at the table.

"I'm so sorry," she apologized, sitting back down.

"I was beginning to think you drowned in the toilet," he smiled. "I missed you,"

'_Oh dear God,'_

"Let's go, shall we? It's getting crowded," she said.

"Whatever you want, baby," he said, leading her out the door.

Once they got outside, she decided to let him down easy.

"Look love, I told my friends I'd meet up with them after our date, so can I meet you later?"

"Of course, I'll see you later. Love you," he added, walking away.

'_I must be going batshit. Did he just say he loves me?'_

"Eh…thank you," she smiled, and took off in the opposite direction as fast and gracefully as she could, mentally slapping herself.

She walked until she reached the Three Broomsticks. Inside she spotted Daphne, Blaise, Sally Anne and Astoria. She wondered why Draco wasn't with them.

"Pansy!" Sally Anne called her over.

Pansy smiled and went over to the table. Blaise scooted over to make room.

"Hello all," she smiled.

"Hi Pansy!" Astoria said excitedly.

Pansy was surprised. Astoria never appeared excited about anything, but she did know Pansy pretty well.

"Hi, Astoria," she said, giving her a fake smile. She was giving a lot of those these days.

"Where did Draco go?" asked Daphne.

"Good question," shrugged Astoria.

'_A-ha. She isn't keeping tabs on him, I see,' _

"I'll be right back, bathroom break," Pansy said.

"Well when you get back, we want to hear about your date," said Daphne.

Pansy just nodded and went to find the bathroom. She asked a waitress, who pointed her down a dark little hallway. She was about to open the bathroom door when someone put a hand on her shoulder.

She could recognize the touch anywhere.

"Draco," she said without even turning around.

"How did your 'date' go," he asked, clearly amused.

"Awful. He told me he loved me," she shuddered. What was the point of denying it?

Draco actually laughed out loud at this, which he quickly disguised with a cough.

"It's not funny!" she pouted.

"Did he really?" he sneered, imitating her pout.

"Unfortunately,"

"He's one whipped pig,"

"Apparently so,"

"Did you dump him?"

"Working on it,"

Draco smirked deviously at her. She smirked back. Needing no further communication, the two were instantly lip-locked. She ran her fingers through his hair and he gripped her waist. She pushed him against the wall and they made out for a good five minutes.

"I told you not to miss me too much," she smirked.

He didn't reply, but continued to kiss her.

After two more minutes she stopped.

"We really shouldn't do this here. Your girlfriend's right outside…"

"I told you, she's _not_ my girlfriend,"

"Well, she's my sister's best friend, it would look bad,"

He sighed and reluctantly pulled away.

"Look, we have an Inquisitorial Squad patrol coming up right? Can you hold out till then?" she asked seductively.

"I think I'll be okay," he replied sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

"Try not to miss me too much," she winked, and walked back out of the hallway, leaving Draco looking after her.

She walked back to the table, and Draco came out several minutes later. Luckily, no one seemed to catch on. Only Sally Anne shot her a look.

Once they were done with drinks, Pansy and her girls began walking back towards the castle. Pansy was in a considerably better mood, even more so when she saw Potty and Cho Chang.

"Ooh, Potter and Chang!" Pansy called. The two looked at her and rolled their eyes.

Pansy was unfazed.

"Ugh, I don't care much for your taste, Chang, at least Diggory was good looking!" she noted.

Daphne and Sally Anne laughed. Astoria, who wanted to tag along with her sister, looked at her in awe.

"Wow, Pansy, you know how to stand up to anyone," she said, her eyes wide.

"It's nothing, darling, you'll get better at it," Pansy smirked.

When they reached the castle, it was nearly dinner time.

"So, I didn't tell you girls the best part of my date," Pansy said.

"What is it?" the girls both asked.

"He told me he loved me," Pansy said, scrunching her nose at the memory.

Daphne gasped and put her hand over her heart. For a Slytherin girl, she was awfully romantic.

Pansy knew she could count on Sally Anne to join her in her disgust for affection.

"That's obscene," Sally Anne said, furrowing her brows.

"Thank you! It's completely ridiculous, we've been dating for like, three months!"

"Pansy, that was so sweet of him," Daphne sighed dreamily.

Pansy shot her a death glare.

"I don't love him, obviously. I need to break up with him,"

"Yes you do," agreed Sally Anne.

'_Thank God one of them has half a brain,'_

"When are you going to do it?" she continued.

"Tonight, as soon as I get a hold of him. Although he'll probably just want to tell me he loves me again," Pansy rolled her eyes.

"This really turns you off huh?" Daphne asked.

"I'm more of a no-strings-attached kind of girl," Pansy admitted.

"Really? We hadn't noticed," said Sally Anne giving her a playful shove.

"Well, I'm going to see if I can find him," Pansy said, heading towards the dungeons.

"Good luck!" they called after her.

'_Please, I was born with luck in my veins,'_

She swiftly went through the dungeons, wanting to get the task over with as quickly possible.

She located the common room and went inside, hoping Nott would be there.

She saw a boy sitting on the sofa, staring into the fire. She could tell by his posture that it was not, in fact, Nott.

Of course, the one time she didn't want to see him, there was Draco Malfoy.

Pansy smiled none the less and slowly walked over to him.

"Hey you,"

He turned around to see who was there, and smirked when he saw it was her.

"Back for round two?"

"Actually, I was looking for Nott,"

His face fell slightly, but he replaced it with a sneer.

"Of course you are,"

"I MUST break up with him," she said desperately.

"Yeah, you probably should," he smirked.

"And why's that?" she asked playfully.

"You know why,"

"Remind me again," she smirked and bit her lip.

He arched an eyebrow and brushed the blonde hair out of his eyes, just generally looking like a sex god.

Pansy couldn't control her lustful demeanor and slinked over to the couch, climbing on his lap. She straddled him and started kissing his cold lips.

He kissed back and held the back of her head, biting her lips hungrily.

For two people who refused to date each other or anyone else, they were pretty intense when it came to that stuff.

She began loosening his tie while he unbuttoned her blouse. If she had been at all capable of coherent thought, she probably would have been more careful about who was coming in the room.

"….Pansy?" she heard a soft, tentative voice.

Pansy instantly ripped her mouth away from Draco and looked towards the door.

There was Nott, standing in the doorway of the common room, looking very confused and increasingly angry.

'_About that good karma…'_


	10. How Pansy Got Her Groove Back

A/N: I know, I know, I SUCK

**A/N: I know, I know, I SUCK. I will be the first to tell you that I suck for not updating this for two months. Hopefully it will have been worth the wait because I've spent the last two months tweaking it and re-doing it and working on chapters for my other stories. Also, I wanted to really make a good outline of the plot that I've been formulating for this story since I started writing it. I hope you lovely readers are still as lovely as you've been on along, because without you I wouldn't have this story! (:**

Whatever "good karma" she thought was coming to her had been ripped from her mind at that moment, because there was nothing good about the sight in front of her. Nott stood in the doorway to the common room, looking shocked, hurt, and extremely pissed.

She chanced a glance at Draco, who was predictably looking like Christmas had come early. She looked up at the endless dungeon ceiling and sighed.

'_VERY funny,'_

"Ah, Nott, come to watch the show?" Draco sneered.

"I should have known," Nott said angrily, his fists clenching. The egotistical side of Pansy, which was the majority, was hoping they would start to fight over her.

"Yeah you should have, everyone else seems to have," Draco continued in his bored drawl.

Time for her to start damage control.

"Look, Nott…I was actually coming to find you to break it off with you, but I got a little distracted," she shrugged.

"Yeah, so why don't you go find a nice hole to crawl into and die?" Draco added.

Nott's hands balled into fists. He rolled up his sleeves and marched over to Draco, who jumped up and drew his wand.

"No wands, pretty boy. Just fists," Nott growled.

The thought of stringy, quiet, Theodore Nott getting into a fistfight was too much for her. She sniggered, infuriating Nott further.

"You think this is FUNNY?" he thundered.

She recomposed herself and cleared her throat. "Look, I'm sorry you had to find out this way, really…"

"No, you're not!" he yelled.

What was the point of denying it anymore? She was Pansy Parkinson for christ's sake, she thrived on confrontation. And she had been 'playing nice' for about three months too long.

"You're right, I'm not! You want to know the truth? You're a sniveling, whiney, suffocating leech! I think I'd rather date the giant squid in the lake at this point then you," she said venomously. She knew her words were biting to begin with, but her tone was even more vicious.

He looked quite taken aback by her outburst, and Draco's eyes widened for a split second before settling into a smirk.

"So…you and Malfoy then? I always knew there was something going on with you two…" Nott asked, now sounding dejected.

"Oh, no, I'm not with him either," she shrugged nonchalantly. This time Draco's eyes widened significantly. "We like to shag, and that's about it,"

Now it was Draco's turn to look pissed. Draco's anger was one of the only things that scared her, but right now she was having too much fun to care.

"What?" Draco asked angrily.

"Oh, I'm sorry Malfoy. Did you think you and I were going to date now?" she asked sweetly. If looks could kill, she'd have been _very _dead.

"Yeah Malfoy, did you?" Nott sneered. Draco grabbed the collar of Nott's robes and shoved him several feet sideways. Nott stumbled, but shoved Draco back.

"Well, I'll let you two kill each other over it, then. I'm going down to dinner," she said casually, and sauntered out of the room smirking.

Who was she kidding? She didn't control damage, she _caused_ it. And she loved every minute of it.

'_Welcome back, bitch,' _she thought, mentally patting herself on the back

By the time she had made it down to the great hall, mostly everyone had finished eating. She saw Sally Anne sitting with Goyle, and plopped down beside her.

"How'd it go?" Sally Anne asked through a mouthful of potatoes.

"It was…interesting," she smirked.

"What happened?"

"Well, to make a long story short, Nott walked in on and me and Draco in the common room, and now the two of them are probably beating the hell out of each other," she smiled, looking accomplished.

"Nice one," Sally Anne nodded in approval. "Wait, you and Draco?"

Pansy looked around for a sign of Daphne, but she wasn't there. She nodded slyly.

"Isn't he with Astoria?"

"Maybe, but I honestly couldn't give two shits," Pansy shrugged, taking a piece of chicken.

"So he's going to date both of you at the same time?" Sally Anne pressed on.

"We're not dating," Pansy huffed.

"But you like him," Sally Anne pointed out.

"I like his good looks and money," Pansy countered.

"You like him,"

"I don't,"

"Then why are you denying it? That usually means you like someone,"

'_Leave it to her to read me like a bloody book,'_

Pansy glanced around Sally Anne and noticed Goyle staring at them intently.

"What are you looking at, you great oaf?" she snapped.

"Nothing," he grunted, gathering more food onto his already filled plate.

Sally Anne smirked at Pansy, and Pansy sighed.

"Look, let's not do this now," she mumbled.

"Ok, I have all night," Sally Anne smiled cheerfully.

The two of them cleared their plates and trudged back up to the common room. When they arrived, there was a group of kids huddled together in front of the fireplace, looking down at something on the floor.

Normally, she wouldn't be interested, but she shoved her way between the younger kids anyways.

Nott was lying frozen on the floor, blood slowly trickling from his nose. She bit her lip, looking around quickly at the others before slipping back out of the crowd.

"Oops," she muttered to Sally Anne.

"What's up?"

"Looks like someone cast a Petrificus Totalus on Nott after punching him in the face…"

"Wow, any idea who it might have been?" Sally Anne smirked knowingly.

"I have a pretty good idea,"

"Let's go upstairs," Sally Anne offered.

"Good call," Pansy agreed. She felt like this had been the longest day of her life.

Pansy flopped onto her bed as Sally Anne flopped onto hers.

"Alright, spill,"

"Spill what? There's nothing to spill,"

"Really? I think there is. You like Draco Malfoy,"

"Shh! Do you want the whole bloody common room to hear??"

"Ah, so it's true then," she smirked.

"No! Ugh!" Pansy groaned in frusteration. Sally Anne giggled.

"When did this start?" she asked.

"Er…beginning of the year…we kind of…had this little affair…it's complicated,"

"And you ended up liking him?"

"Well, if you're going to get all technical…"

"I thought you were a 'no strings' kind of girl?"

"Well, I was—AM—I don't know…it's complicated," she repeated.

"Well judging by the way he probably beat the hell out of Nott for you, he's not _completely_ made of stone, and I don't think you are either," Sally Anne said.

"No, actually, we are, that's the problem,"

"Why won't you just tell him how you feel?"

Pansy felt like gagging at the thought. If there was one thing she absolutely _loathed_, it was talking about her 'feelings'. Especially to someone who shared her view on the matter. She'd just as soon throw herself off the North Tower.

But still, the question made her think. Why _was _she that way? Her parents certainly weren't a good example of love. They were an arranged marriage, but for the sake of money and high status they played the 'happy couple' card in public.

Only Pansy knew what went on behind closed doors. They fought constantly, saying they hated each other. Her mother would cry and lock herself in her room. From a young age Pansy knew she never wanted that for herself, so she kept her heart heavily guarded.

Thinking about her parents depressed her slightly. That was one thing she loved about school, she could get away from home and forget about everything.

"…Pans?"

Sally Anne pulled her back from her miserable thoughts.

"Sorry, what?"

"I said why won't you tell him?"

Pansy wrestled with herself on how to answer. In her rare moment of vulnerability, she chose honesty; something she avoided unless it was brutal honesty.

"I guess I'm just…scared," she sighed, defeated. Sally Anne gave her a sympathetic look, and Pansy immediately began putting her walls back up. She _despised _being pitied. It made her feel like her mother when she was locked up in her room crying…an embarrassment.

"You know what, forget it, I don't know why I'm even telling you this. And stop looking at me like I'm a lost puppy," she snapped.

Just then, Daphne came bounding into the room.

"Hey, bitches," she smirked.

"Where've you been?" asked Sally Anne.

"Dumb question," Pansy mumbled.

Daphne raised her eyebrows at Pansy but smirked anyways.

"What are you so pissed off about?" she asked slyly, as if she knew very well what Pansy was pissed off about.

"Your general presence," Pansy snapped, only half joking.

Daphne seemed to take it as a joke, seeing as she was used to Pansy walking all over her, and threw a pillow at her.

"Seriously, I have a splitting headache, I'm going downstairs," said Pansy.

"Fine, miss PMS," said Daphne.

Pansy was just happy to get away from her constant chatting. She rubbed her head and went downstairs, hoping Nott wouldn't still be knocked out.

After finding the room empty, she laid down on the long green sofa, watching the embers flicker in the fireplace. She was about to doze off when the common room door swung open.

Astoria bounced in looking more lively then Pansy had ever seen her. Trailing behind her was the certain blonde who had been driving her insane the past few months, looking rather disheveled. She could only imagine what they had been doing.

When he saw Pansy on the couch, he smirked triumphantly.

"Pansy, hi! You're still up? Did you see Nott? Is he okay?" Astoria asked anxiously.

'_When did she get so enthusiastic?'_

"Actually, darling, we broke up today, so no I haven't," Pansy said tiredly.

"Oh, okay. See you," She turned around and kissed Malfoy on the cheek. He stood there stiffly and smirked as she floated up to the dormitories.

Pansy's insides burned as she watched the scene. _'Stop it!' _she argued with herself.

Malfoy stared at her smugly. "Come on Parkinson, did you think you and I were going to date?"

Pansy shook her head and continued to stare at the dying fire.

"What are we doing?" she asked finally.

"What are you talking about?"

"This," she groaned, pointing to him and herself.

"This," he imitated her, "is what we wanted,"

"But what if it's not?" she asked, frustrated.

"What are you playing at?" he asked, afraid of her answer.

She was not known for making good decisions when she was overtired, and this time, sadly, was no exception.

'_JUST DO IT!'_

"I may have…erm…developed…feelings for you…recently," she shrugged casually, looking hot pink nails. His eyes widened and his eyebrows raised, and she immediately regretted her irrational decision.

She waited for his response, but he just stood there silently and stone-faced.

'_Now would be a good time for the earth to swallow me whole,'_

"Right, well…I'm going to bed…I'll just let that, uh, sink in a bit," she said. She walked over to him and stood centimeters from his face.

"Are you even going to say anything?"

He continued to stare at her almost angrily, so she slowly pressed her lips against his cold ones. She bit at his bottom lip and traced her tongue along the inside.

She pulled away slowly, and turned to walk slowly upstairs, making sure to swing her hips, smirking the whole way.

Once again, she had left a boy completely speechless.

'_Mhm, I've still got it,'_

--

Draco stared after her, dumbfounded. There weren't many times where he was at a loss for words, but that had completely surprised him.

It also made his stomach sink faster then a stone in water.

This completely wasn't supposed to happen. He shook his head violently, as if that would erase everything.

He kept denying that he had begun to care for the stupid girl for a couple of reasons. One, he was a Malfoy. And two, he was a Malfoy.

Since Draco was young, Lucius strongly discouraged any form of love and affection. It was considered to be one of the extreme and unnecessary weaknesses, and while Draco certainly didn't love Pansy, she was becoming harder to ignore.

When she was around him, his chest felt tight. His heart raced when she kissed him. He desperately wanted to vomit, mostly at his own disgust for himself.

'_You are a MALFOY, get your shit together,' _he thought angrily.

He wanted her. He wanted to be able to touch her porcelain skin all the time, and play with her silky hair. He wanted her soft lips on his.

He smacked a hand to his face in frustration. He was angry.

'_Stop, stop, stop, STOP'_

He liked her. He bloody liked her. He wanted her to be his, and ONLY his, so he could show her off. The thought of her and Nott together made his insides burn with jealousy, and Draco had never been jealous over the attention of a girl before. So, he just reacted naturally and stunned the hell of Nott. Then proceeded to smash his nose up a bit…

He was jealous of Harry Potter, sure, and all his fame and glory. He was jealous that he was better at quidditch, and that he had people who loved him, where as Draco was alone and unloved, but he didn't get jealous over girls.

He wasn't sure who he was more angry at, him or Nott. Or even Pansy.

Especially Pansy. Who did she think she was, making him feel needed the way she did when she kissed him hungrily? This mess he was in was all her fault.

He realized he was still standing in the exact same spot. He traced a finger over his bottom lip, still tingling where she bit him.

This thing was going to drive him insane if he didn't act fast. He knew then, exactly what he wanted to do.

**A/N: Hmm…what does Draco want to do? I guess you'll find out next chapter, which I'm already half way done writing, by the way (: Cruel, I know. Anyways, I hope this chapter was worth the wait for you guys. I don't know if I'm still entirely happy with it, even though I changed it 8 times. And if Pansy and Draco seemed a bit out of character in their thoughts, that was intentional. Especially for Pansy, because I wanted to start breaking down her walls a bit to show why she acts the way she acts, but don't worry, it doesn't happen too often, she is Pansy Parkinson after all ;) I think Draco was pretty much in character, though he is a very conflicted guy too. Oh, and the next chapter is should be the last one for 5****th**** year, and it will be very compact. Then onto action-packed year 6, finally! Much love to everyone, and thanks for bearing with me!**


	11. When I Arrive I Bring The Fire

**A/N**: Holy crap, has it really been almost a year since I updated this? To be completely honest I just lost interest in Harry Potter for a while…but I saw the trailer for the 6th movie and Tom's looking pretty sexual, so it kind of got me into it! I got really sweet reviews from **Kazza1258, Sophie Rostochine, and SiriusAllPunked (**thank you!!) I figured if people are still reading, then I will still write. I'm on summer vacation now so I'll have more time to get back into the swing! Thanks again you lovely readers!

---

Draco's mind raced furiously, and he suddenly felt nauseous. There was absolutely no way in hell that Pansy Parkinson had just come up to him and told him she had feelings for him.

What the bloody hell was going on around here? She was probably just messing with him…there was no way he was going to succumb to that bullshit.

He rubbed at his pretty face viciously.

'_You know you kind of do like her,' _said an annoying voice at the back of his mind.

"Shut up," he growled, running a hand furiously through his sleek blonde locks.

'_Seriously, why else do you get so jealous when she's with __**him**__…you know you want her,'_

"Shut UP,"

'_Not until you admit you like her,' _

"Not a chance,"

'_Make her __**yours**__,'_

"Absolutely not,"

'_Ah just do it, you pussy,'_

"…"

'_What, daddy wouldn't approve?'_

Draco growled again. This was turning out to be quite frustrating. Now he was talking to himself? Malfoy's do not do such asinine things.

He purposefully walked up the stairs to the girls dorm, careful to skip the first two steps. He quietly opened the door and went over to Pansy's bed. If he didn't get this over with he'd probably kill himself before morning.

"Parkinson," he whispered urgently.

She shot up in alarm, apparently not asleep.

"Draco? What the hell?" she asked, so confused that she actually referred to him as Draco and not 'Malfoy'.

He looked at her petite frame that seemed so small in the huge bed. Her emerald eyes searched his face with a look of concern—something he'd never seen in her before. He opened his mouth to speak, and then shut it again. She stared at him for a minute.

"Well, get on with it, idiot" she snapped, concern wearing off quickly.

"I…erm…" this was turning out to be much, much harder than he'd anticipated.

She studied him as her annoyance gave way to curiosity. She raised her thin eyebrow.

"Yes, _darling?_"

"I…uh…ah, bloody hell. You know that thing that you just told me about fifteen minutes ago?" he asked.

"Yes…" she answered carefully.

"Well, er…me too," he said finally, letting out a big breath of air.

Recognition spread over her features. She smirked.

"So you do like me,"

He cringed.

"Since when?"

"I don't know...since…I don't know, Parkinson, Jesus!" he snapped.

"No need to get so testosterone, my little dragon, I'm very hard to resist," she smirked again.

"Yeah well, don't get your knickers in a twist, this isn't one of those outrageous muggle movies you're constantly babbling about. And we will NOT be Daphne and Zabini. They make me want to vomit profusely," he said coldly, rolling his icy blue eyes.

She ignored his chilly demeanor. "Well, I knew you'd come around eventually, you twat," she said slyly, hitting him on the shoulder.

"I have to say, Parkinson, I'm kind of surprised. You seemed perfectly content to diddle Nott for the rest of the year," he smirked.

"Please. I had to bite my lip to keep from screaming your name," she said sarcastically, returned his smirk. It was only half true…

"I'm a tough act to follow,"

The two sat in silence for 5 long seconds.

"So, see you tomorrow then," he said, suddenly very business-like. He swaggered out the door with the familiar arrogance that she knew so well. Pansy sighed and fell back onto her bed. She pinched her arm a couple of times.

Once she was sure that she wasn't, in fact, dreaming, a million different thoughts ran through her mind.

She could feel her walls very, _very,_ slowly crumbling, her resolve weakening. She didn't like it, but for some reason she felt almost safe when Draco was around. Ironic, really, since he was a fairly dangerous person to be around.

At the same time, she was kind of excited. _The _Draco Malfoy wanted her. The Slytherin prince with ice running through his veins wanted her and only her. Life was so absurd.

She bit her lip in concentration. It was like he said, they didn't have to be all romantic…they were simply…exclusive. There was absolutely nothing wrong with liking a boy and having him be your 'exclusive significant other', right?

She decided to just let it go. She and Draco were exclusive…for now. And that was that. Tomorrow she would go down to breakfast and everything would be perfectly normal.

Right?

---

The next day, Pansy awoke feeling refreshed. She was also incredibly anxious. Would Malfoy act like nothing had happened? Would they just act like they normally do? Would he start making out with her in front of all their friends?

Not too likely on that last one.

She dressed and washed, and tried to make herself look especially pretty as she listened to Daphne gabbing endlessly about some dream she had.

"And then…you just showed up out of nowhere in a flying muggle car with Snape in the back seat, you'd just come back from your honeymoon…I forget where. I wonder if it's some kind of omen. Maybe it means that I shouldn't have sex with Blaise tonight. Oh my god, maybe it means me and Blaise will get married and have an ugly child!" Daphne blabbed incessantly.

Pansy stared at her. "What the _hell_ are you talking about?"

"What? It might!" Daphne said defensively. Pansy shook her head. "It's a little early for you to shift into idiot gear, don't you think, Daph?"

Daphne pouted and continued to brush her hair. She could be so daft sometimes, she probably didn't even know what Pansy meant.

Just then, the dormitory door flew open, and Astoria came flying through in a mess of sobs. It was the most noise Pansy had ever heard her make.

"Daphne!" she wailed.

Daphne turned around startled. "Jesus, what the hell is wrong with you?" she asked her sister.

Astoria sniffled several times and continued to sob. "Dr-Dr-Draco…br-br-broke up with m-me," she hyperventilated through her deafening cries. Tears streamed down her face as her breathing hitched.

Pansy's eyes widened. She hadn't seen anyone cry that much since Daphne found out the lead singer of the Weird Sisters was already married. Apparently it ran in the family.

Crying made her extremely uncomfortable. The fact that she was the primary reason for it made her even more uncomfortable. She pretended not to see the blubbering mess in front of her and continued to fix her hair.

"Well, what happened?" Daphne asked gently, rubbing her sister's back.

"He…he said he didn't want to see me anymore…he…he probably met some other stupid whore!" Astoria moaned miserably.

Pansy felt that nagging twinge of guilt again. She wasn't entirely sure why, either. What did she have to feel guilty about? It's not like it was her fault she was cursed with good looks and big boobs. It was only natural that Draco would like her better, Astoria should understand that.

Daphne continued to rub her back. "Shh, its alright," she said soothingly. "Astoria, you had to know that it wasn't going to last, you're only 13 for Christ's sake,"

"But I thought he liked me!" she wailed again.

"Astoria, he's just a stupid boy. Not even worth your time or beauty," Daphne tried consoling her.

"But…you and Blaise seem so happy…and I…I just wanted that too!" she cried, a whole new wave of sobs crashing over her.

"Well, Blaise and I are different. Blaise is _not_ Draco Malfoy. We're actually in love, so you can't even compare it really."

Pansy snorted. "Oh, come _on, _Daph,"

Daphne snapped her head up at Pansy. "Excuse me?"

"You don't seriously think Blaise is in love with you, do you?" Pansy asked. She may have sounded like a bitch, but at least she was honest.

"What do you even know about it, Pansy?" Daphne asked, her eyes suddenly fiery.

"Well, I know that he's a 15 year old boy and he's getting some from a pretty girl, and I'm pretty sure that's all he cares about," Pansy said.

"Just because you refuse to let people in to your life doesn't mean everyone else is that way! You don't even know anything about it Pansy, so just shut up!" Daphne sputtered furiously.

Pansy raised her eyebrows. She had never heard Daphne stand up for herself before. Astoria glared at Pansy as well.

"Yeah, Pansy, what would you know about it?" she tried to sound threatening, but came off as weak and intimidated. Stupid girl.

"You know Pansy, I'm _really_ sick of your crap. You treat me like I'm some puppet or something. I feel like you don't even really like me that much. So you know what? I don't think we should be friends any more," Daphne said all in one breath. She exhaled deeply.

"I've been holding that in for a really long time," she sighed in relief. Pansy stared at her in shock.

"Don't you think you're being a little bit ridiculous?"

"No, I don't! You always say that, and I let you walk all over me! Go find someone else to manipulate, bitch!" Daphne blurted before she could stop herself.

Pansy could feel her mouth hanging open. Since _when_ had Daphne Greengrass actually grown a set?

For the first time in her life, she didn't have some clever retort or sharp-tongued insult. She just stood there and watched as her 'best friend' take her sister by the hand and walk out of the room, leaving Pansy alone.

She couldn't believe it had escalated so quickly. One minute Daphne was gabbing as usual, and the next they weren't even friends? Life really was absurd.

She took a brief moment to collect herself before going down to the Great Hall. Upon her arrival, she was met with silence.

Daphne's eyes were red and puffy. Her sister was on her left, rubbing her shoulder, her eyes just as red and puffy. Blaise was on the other side of her, almost looking annoyed. Across from them sat Nott, looking oh-so-sympathetic towards a girl he'd never even talked to. Even Sally Anne was sitting next to Nott and looking somewhat sympathetic as well. Pansy was surprised and almost a little hurt. Sally Anne had often expressed her own annoyance towards Daphne.

Maybe Pansy had been beaten at her own game. She was so sure she had everyone wrapped around her finger, and now they were all flocking to the village idiot?

She sat down slowly at the end of the table as everyone turned to stare at her. Millicent Bulstrode looked like she was in her glory as she pretended to listen to Daphne's sob story. As usual, Crabbe and Goyle were too involved with food to notice anything. Pansy noticed that one person was absent from the table. The only person she really wanted to see...

She looked up at the rest of the table, remaining silent. She wasn't going to give these prats the satisfaction of apologizing. Everyone would be over it by the end of the day, including Daphne. She could never _not_ be friends with Pansy. Who would she follow around like a dog?

No one turned to look at her again. Pansy stared at her plate of eggs and bacon, pushing the egg around with her fork. She felt like she was in exile.

It was strange. When she was surrounded by friends, she acted as though she didn't need them. She convinced herself she didn't need other people, she was the queen. Everybody else just worked under her. They were there to make her look good.

And now, she had never felt lonelier in her life.

She was suddenly aware of someone sitting next to her. She looked up into the stormy blue-gray eyes of Draco.

"Hey," he mumbled.

"Hi," she half smiled.

"Did someone die or something?"

"Someone may as well have. Astoria is all heartbroken that you dumped her, and Daphne's pissed at me because I told her she was ridiculous for thinking Blaise loved her," Pansy sighed.

Draco sniggered. "Are you kidding?"

Pansy shook her head and bit her lip. "No, everyone hates me now apparently," she shrugged, cutting her eggs up in squares and stacking them absentmindedly.

Draco studied her. "You're really bugged, aren't you?"

Pansy looked up indignantly. "I am not, I'm pissed," she argued.

"You're not pissed. If you were pissed you'd be ripping someone's head off right now, probably mine," he smirked.

Pansy said nothing. She could tell he was trying to make her feel better, in typical Draco fashion. "Come on now Parkinson, you have bigger balls than I do…and that's an achievement."

She laughed a little bit. "Is that your way of trying to cheer me up, Malfoy?" she asked

He bit his lip and smirked. She felt his hand slowly run up her leg and stop dangerously close to the top of her thigh. She inhaled sharply.

"Not even close," he said slyly, his voice low.

Pansy suddenly felt like she was being watched. She looked up to see everyone staring at her and Draco. He retracted his hand and got up to leave.

Astoria and Daphne looked at her suspiciously.

Draco was right. She was Pansy freaking Parkinson, and she would be damned if she let anyone take her down.

Her and Daphne made eye contact briefly. Daphne glared at her, daring her to get up and follow Draco.

And Pansy was not one to shy away from a challenge. If Daphne wanted a war, then let the games begin.

She gave Daphne one final look, and got up from the table, following Draco out of the Great Hall.

---

That night, Pansy had a prefect patrol with Draco. She welcomed it, looking for any excuse not to return to the dormitory.

Pansy was fairly quiet, not wanting to talk about her fight with Daphne or anything else. She just wanted to stare at Draco's pretty face all night.

"Alright, I'm getting annoyed," Draco said as they walked down the fourth floor corridor.

"You? Why?"

"Because you're being boring," he drawled, yawning for emphasis.

"I'm just not in a good mood,"

"You're not really much of anything at the moment,"

"Remember when we used to just shag and not talk? You were fine with that before," she pointed out.

"True," he shrugged. He suddenly grabbed her and pushed her against the cold stone wall.

"Pansy, fuck all of them," he said, staring into her green eyes.

She looked at him confused.

"They're just jealous. You have way more going for you than any of them," he told her, sounding honest for once.

"You mean that?" she asked.

He wagged his eyebrows. "Would I lie to you?" he asked, feigning innocence.

"Yes," she replied faintly.

"Why wouldn't they be? I mean, who else could make up the lyrics to 'Weasley is our King?' off the top of their head?" he smirked, running a finger along her collarbone.

She shivered. "Well, you're the one who got Potter and the Weasel twins kicked off the team," she pointed out. He smirked at the memory.

She pushed a stray blonde hair out of his face. "Thank you," she said softly. He furrowed his brows.

"For making me feel better," she clarified. His eyes seemed to soften slightly, but he covered it back up. "Are you done moping now?" he asked.

"Quite," she answered confidently.

"Good," he smirked.

She leaned in to kiss him, but he pulled away.

"Draco, come on," she whined.

He smirked. "God, control yourself, Parkinson. You actually want to jump me right in the hallway? Who knows who could walk by," he said playfully.

She slapped his shoulder and tried pulling him in again, but he started walking down the hallway.

"Ugh, I hate you!"

He sniggered and kept walking. She ran after him, grabbed him by the shoulder and quickly planted a kiss on his cold lips.

"Ha, I win," she said triumphantly. She turned around and started walking ahead of him.

His lips tingled where she pecked him. "You think you're pretty funny don't you, Parkinson?" he said, laughing a tiny bit despite himself.

"You seem to think so," she called back.

Draco shook his head and followed her, desperately trying to quell the swelling feeling in his chest.

---

Pansy didn't arrive back at the dorm until late. She quietly opened the door, hoping no one was awake. She really didn't feel like conversing with the motley crew at the moment.

She changed quietly and climbed into her comfortable four-poster. She sighed, wishing she was snogging Draco still. God, that boy was a good kisser.

"Pansy?" she heard a voice from her left somewhere. It was Millicent. She rolled her eyes.

"What, Millicent?"

"Are you okay?"

Pansy was stunned. She thought Bulstrode hated her guts, and judging by earlier today, seemed to sympathize with Daphne.

"Um…yeah, why?"

"Well, I know you're kind of getting the cold shoulder. It'll blow over though," Millicent offered.

"I know, I'm not worried about it," Pansy lied, not wanting to sound as weak as she felt.

Millicent remained silent.

"Er…thanks, though,"

That was the second time she'd thanked someone in one night. This day was just getting weirder and weirder.

"You're welcome,"

They stopped talking. After awhile, she could hear Millicent's soft snores. She turned over and hugged her pillow.

She was so sick of school. Luckily, only O.W.L.S remained. Soon she'd be out for the summer, and wouldn't have to see these stupid twats for three glorious months.

Yeah, really glorious, spending them with your detached parents alone in your big house, listening to them argue while you sit in your room and stare out your window.

She sighed again. She wasn't really looking forward to going home, either. She felt like she was drowning, trapped in some inescapable alternate universe. But she wouldn't be defeated. Soon enough, she'd be back on top. She just needed some time to regroup, that was all.

She tried to shut off her mind as her eyes began to flutter, and she soon fell into an uneasy sleep.

**A/N: Wow, finally done. It's now 2:30 a.m so I am off to bed! Hope you guys enjoyed your long overdue update. This chapter pretty much wraps up 5****th**** year. Next chapter will begin with them leaving for the summer, and then go from there. Bring on the drama!**


	12. Going Under

**A/N: Oh my god…two updates in a week, guess I really have** **been inspired again. I know I kind of just skip over some events at the end of the 5****th**** book, but honestly, it takes too much time, and I want to get on with the 6****th**** year! So I will just imply them (: Enjoy!**

The next couple of weeks all passed fairly quickly for Pansy. She had taken her O.W.L.S (and probably hadn't done so well), Gryffindor had astonishingly won the Quidditch cup, which put Draco in an extremely bad mood for a week, and most of her friends still weren't talking to her. The nerve of those twats, after everything she'd done for them…

Only Sally Anne had made an effort, for which Pansy was secretly grateful.

She had also been involved in the capturing of Potter's little renegade army, or "Dumbledore's Army", as the stupid prats called it. What a joke. Like any of them would ever take on the Dark Lord single handedly.

A fat lot of good that did, though, since the damn Golden Trio still found their damn way to the Department of Mysteries. Their encounter with the Death Eaters had led to Lucius Malfoy's arrest, and he was sent to Azkaban along with several others.

The incident was, naturally, all over the Daily Prophet, and Minister Fudge could no longer avoid what he'd been trying so hard to bury for the last year. The Wizarding World's greatest fear had been realized.

Lord Voldemort had indeed returned, and with a vengeance.

Pansy wasn't so sure how she felt about it. She knew that during the first war, her family had remained "neutral", primarily out of fear. Her father was not in His inner circle, and he wasn't a Death Eater, but apparently had relayed some information on to Death Eaters. She hoped her father wouldn't involve himself at all this time around, but she did know someone who would be.

Draco had been in a bad state since the news of his father's arrest. He was _very_ angry that his family's reputation was shot to hell. People were staring at him like he'd attack them at any minute, and all sorts of rumors were flying off the handle.

Pansy did feel bad for him, but she knew there was nothing she could do. She tried to give him his space, since when he talked to her it was only short, angry sentences.

He also seemed increasingly nervous. She really couldn't blame him; she'd probably be a wreck if her dad had just been tossed into Azkaban and she was left alone with her dysfunctional mother, unprotected.

But she also felt that it was something more than that. He was hiding something, she could tell. So, the night before they were to leave for summer break, she cornered him in the common room.

He was sitting on one of the green sofas, staring into the dying fire, looking deep in thought.

"…Draco?"

He whipped his head around to look at her. "What, Parkinson?" he asked, annoyed.

"Why are you being such a horse's arse?" she asked.

He glared. "Is that a serious question?" he snapped.

"Well, you're always an ass, but lately you've just like…I don't know, shut off," she tried.

She waited for the anger to return to his eyes, but he didn't look angry. He looked tired.

"When your father gets thrown in Azkaban and your public image is ruined, then come talk to me," he said bitterly.

She rolled her eyes and went over to him, placing herself in his lap.

"Just go away, I'm not in the mood," he said, rubbing his temple.

She ran her bony fingers along his neck, up his soft cheek and into his hair, playing with the blonde strands.

"Come on, Malfoy, chin up," she said, trying to sound commanding.

"I mean it, Pansy, go away," he growled. She sighed in frustration.

"Look at me," she said, lifting his chin so that his stormy gray eyes locked on hers.

"It's going to be okay, you know. You'll get over it," she said, playing with his hair again.

He didn't reply. He ripped his eyes from her and stared into the fire again. She ran her hands down his firm chest; it felt like it was made of steel plates. They moved down to his hard stomach, and he grabbed them.

"Just go," he said in a dangerously low voice. She took her hands off of him and folded them across her chest.

"What is it you're not telling me?" she asked accusingly.

"Nothing, you're just being annoying as usual," he said in his cold drawl.

Now Pansy was angry. "Fine, you great stupid prat, suffer all alone! I don't know if you noticed, but no one else seems to be talking to you," she spat.

He raised his eyebrows. "Watch it, Parkinson,"

"Ugh, I give up," she said, throwing her hands up and getting off the couch. "Play with yourself, you're good at that," she added angrily before retreating to her room.

She stomped up the steps, looking back to see if he was coming after her or even looking. He was still staring emotionlessly into the fire, like their whole conversation hadn't even happened.

She threw open the door to the dorm and slammed it. To her dismay, Daphne was the only one in there, reading on her bed.

She looked up and smirked. "Lover's quarrel?" she asked with a condescending look. Pansy ignored her.

"What, aren't you good enough for darling Draco? He must have come to his senses," she said with her fakest smile. "Guess he doesn't like being the girl in the relationship," she added, sniggering to herself.

Pansy laughed coldly. "Wow, you really are clever, Daphne. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Blaise actually officially dump you yesterday?"

Daphne glared at her. "We're taking a break over the summer," she said defensively.

Pansy laughed again. "Right, keep telling yourself that, love," Pansy said, laying down on her own bed and grabbing a copy of Witch Weekly from under her pillow.

Daphne looked at her own magazine. "I heard Draco tried to hex the hell out of Potter today," she said with fake interest.

Pansy knew all about it, and she really didn't care for Daphne's condescending tone.

"What's it to you?" Pansy asked, challenging her.

"Well nothing, it's probably just really embarrassing for you," she replied with the fakest sympathy.

"I mean, having to defend your boyfriend's pathetic, washed-up family to everyone…and walking around with a tarnished reputation on your arm…it doesn't make you look too good, does it?" she continued.

Pansy bit her tongue. She didn't have to 'defend' anything to anyone. What did anyone even know about it? Oh yeah, nothing.

She threw her magazine on the floor and turned over. She could hear Daphne laughing quietly to herself. It was all she could do not to turn around and hex her right there…but she'd have nowhere to stash the body. Pity.

She knew it would be another night of uneasy sleep. Did everyone really think Draco was 'washed up'? Draco, the alpha leader, the boy everyone in Slytherin house worshipped, was just suddenly nothing?

When she had been with Nott, she had always seemed so concerned about her reputation while she dated him. Now that Draco was apparently 'damaged', it would definitely make her look bad to associate with him.

But for some reason, she didn't care this time.

She allowed sleep to overcome her, blocking angry thoughts of Daphne and concern for Draco from her mind.

***

Morning came all too soon. Draco groaned and rolled over in his bed, putting an arm over his head to block out the sun. He had to get up, get on a train, and go home to his huge mansion with Narcissa, who was likely an emotional wreck.

He had to go home and face everything that had suddenly changed his life in the course of a week. His mother would be an absolute mess, and his father wouldn't even be there.

He and Lucius had never had a good relationship to begin with, but the fact that he wasn't there was strange. It made him feel incredibly alone.

His mind suddenly shifted to Pansy. She'd tried to talk to him last night, but that was the absolute last thing he'd wanted.

Sometimes he wished he could talk about it, though. She made him feel like he actually did matter, even if it was only to her. Now that Lucius was locked up, he wouldn't have an excuse to see her. Not unless their mothers got together…but Narcissa would probably lock herself in her room and cry all day.

Mustering all his strength, he rolled out of bed and attempted to function normally. He always had to keep his composure. He would be cool, calm, and collected.

Deep down, though, he was anxious. With Lucius in Azkaban, Voldemort would need someone to do his bidding. And Draco had a feeling that He would choose the one and only Malfoy heir.

It was only a matter of time. He knew this summer that he would probably get the Mark.

Narcissa would beg him not to, beg him to be rational. She would never want for her son what her husband had…but Draco would not let Lucius down. He _would_ prove to his father what he was capable of.

Yes, Lucius would be proud, sitting alone in a cell in Azkaban, knowing that his years of heavy emotional abuse had finally paid off. This is what everyone (except maybe his mother) had wanted for him all along. This is what Draco always wanted. He wanted power and fame and glory, and now was his chance.

When the Dark Lord needed him, he would do whatever it took to prove himself. He _would_ succeed, because he was a Malfoy, and Malfoy's_ always_ won.

***

Across the way, Pansy was arising from her deep sleep. She was groggy, and vaguely aware of people bustling around the room, throwing things into trunks.

"Thanks for the wake up call," she grumbled.

Daphne smirked. Millicent acted like she didn't hear her. Only Sally Anne looked at her.

"Sorry Pans, you seemed really tired," she offered apologetically.

"Right," said Pansy with a skeptic tone.

Daphne seemed to be finished packing already, and quickly exited the dorm. "See you on the train," she called back to Sally Anne.

Pansy rolled her eyes and began to dress as well.

"So…how are you?" Sally Anne asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"Peachy,"

"Look, I'm sorry I've been kind of distant lately, I've been a bonehead,"

"Yeah, you kind of have," Pansy agreed, throwing some clothes and books into her own trunk.

"I only heard Daph's side of the story, I should have listened to you too,"

"I know,"

"I'm sorry," Sally Anne repeated.

It was good enough for Pansy. At least someone was talking to her.

"S'okay," she shrugged, slamming the trunk shut.

"So…you and Draco are finally together, hm? I was wondering when you two would come to your senses," she grinned.

"What do you mean?"

"Oh come on, you've only had that mounting sexual tension all year. Everyone knew. Well, except maybe Daphne and Astoria. Are you and he getting along, though?"

"I don't know, it's like, I'm actually trying to have a legit relationship with him, which I never do, but he's not so willing."

"Give him a chance. He's Draco Malfoy, for god's sake. What, did you think he'd just fall madly in love with you right away and tell you all the time how he felt?" Sally Anne smirked.

"Ugh, obviously not. That thought makes me nauseas…it's just this whole thing with his dad getting sent to Azkaban has really thrown him off… but he knows it's going to happen soon,"

"What is?" Sally Anne asked.

"What he's been bred to do,"

"You mean…become a Death Eater?"

Pansy nodded. She had reached the conclusion last night as she tossed and turned in her bed. It made sense; Lucius was out of the picture for the time being, and Voldemort would need a replacement for his right-hand man. And who better then Lucius's own flesh and blood?

He was mentally preparing himself, she knew it. She really didn't have a prayer of being with him now. Once you became a Death Eater, it consumed you. It was only a matter of time before he would shut her out completely…for good.

"I don't think we'll last too long, honestly," Pansy admitted. "In that family, power and obedience to Voldemort come before anything else. I suppose it was fun while it lasted…"

"I think maybe you should just see what happens. If in a month or so you're still together, and things start to happen for him, see how you feel. If you truly care about him, you'll stick by him," Sally Anne said. This was why she was the only person Pansy bothered to talk to about anything.

"You know, I think I'll keep you around," Pansy smirked. Sally Anne smirked back.

"Good, I was afraid you hated me."

"I actually kind of missed you…a little," Pansy said, hugging her.

"Come on, let's get going, the train's leaving soon," Sally Anne said, pulling Pansy out of the room with their trunks.

***

At the Hogsmeade station, students were bustling around, trying to get their trunks onto the Hogwarts express and chattering with their friends about summer plans.

Pansy and Sally Anne boarded the train, searching for a compartment. They saw Daphne and Astoria going into one with a bunch of Astoria's friends. Pansy found it funny that they were who Daphne had resorted to hanging out with now that she couldn't attach herself to Pansy.

The two girls found an almost empty compartment, except for Millicent.

"Hello, Millicent," Pansy greeted as enthusiastically as possible.

"Oh hello," she nodded.

"Mind if we sit?" Sally Anne asked carefully. She'd always been rather afraid of Millicent.

Millicent nodded for them to sit down.

"I saw Draco go into a compartment a couple of rows down," Millicent offered to Pansy.

Pansy glanced at Sally Anne.

"I'll be back," she said, slipping out of the compartment. She wanted a chance to see Draco before they got off the train.

It wasn't hard to find him. She could hear his angry voice talking urgently to Crabbe and Goyle.

She slid open the compartment door and leaned against the doorway. Draco looked up at her and smirked.

"Well, go on then," he snapped at Crabbe and Goyle.

The two bumbling idiots got up and trudged out of the compartment, likely going to find the food trolley.

"Are you less of an ass today?" she asked, sitting down next to him.

"Maybe, maybe not" he shrugged.

"I'll take that as a no," she said, rolling her eyes.

"I've got a lot going on right now,"

"Why won't you just tell me what it is? I could help you-"

He scoffed. "I don't need 'help', Parkinson,"

Pansy huffed in frustration. "Fine, Malfoy, I really do give up. Have a good summer," she said, getting to leave.

He grabbed her arm and pulled her back down.

"Pans, come here,"

"No, let me go," she argued, trying to free her arm. His grip was tight, but not enough to really hurt her.

His pulled her back down next to him.

"What, you don't think you'll see me?" he asked seductively.

"Not if you're being like this," she snapped.

"You know you couldn't stay away from me," he murmured.

True statement.

She shifted gears, trying to distract him enough to tell her something important.

"Have you heard from your mother?" she asked, tracing circles on his exposed forearm. She vaguely wondered if this would be the last time she'd see it unmarked.

"No, but I'm sure she's a real delight at the moment," he said sarcastically.

"You should just come live with me," she joked. "I'll keep you tied to my bed…no one would even notice. Well, maybe they would at night," she added with a sly smile.

"I'm considering it," he said.

She scoffed, not sure if he was kidding or not.

They were interrupted by Crabbe and Goyle shuffling into the compartment.

"Draco, we found Potter's compartment," Goyle reported slowly.

"Yeah, we found out where he was sitting," Crabbe repeated stupidly. Draco rolled his eyes.

"Well done, ignoramuses,"

Crabbe and Goyle waited for him in the doorway.

"Go on, you idiots, I'll be right there," he ordered. "God, its like talking to two huge brick walls. Actually, I think I'd rather take the brick walls."

He looked at Pansy, whose arms were crossed with a pout on her face.

"I'll see you later, duty calls," he said, pulling his arm away.

"Bye," she mumbled. They both left the compartment, each going their separate ways down the isle. She returned to the compartment she was sharing with Sally Anne and Millicent.

For the remainder of the train ride, the girls just talked about nothing in particular. They slept and ate occasionally, and Pansy wondered whether or not she should try and find Draco again.

Finally, they could feel the train coming to a slow stop. All Pansy wanted to do was crash onto her bed and sleep for days.

"We'd better get going, Pans," Sally Anne said, shaking her from her thoughts.

They left the train together, gathered their trunks, and searched Platform 9 and ¾ for their families.

Sally Anne found hers first.

"Please, write me. I'll see you soon," Sally Anne said, hugging her.

"You better," Pansy smirked.

After parting with Sally Anne, she noticed her own father waiting for her, occasionally checking his watch.

"Hi, daddy," she smiled, walking up to him and hugging him.

"Princess! Did you have a good term?" he asked, hugging her back.

"Fabulous. Did you bring me a present?"

"Of course, angel," he smiled, handing her a small blue box.

Pansy opened it. Inside was a charm bracelet with a single purple flower charm. Just what she needed; more expensive jewelry to replace love.

"Daddy, its gorgeous!" she gushed.

"It's from the most expensive wizard jeweler in Marseilles, darling, Talbot and Taft's."

"It's lovely. Where's mummy?" Pansy asked, even though she had a pretty good guess.

"Oh…well, she wanted to come honey, she's just…not feeling good today. But she's very excited to see you," her father assured her.

Pansy knew exactly what he meant. Her parents had another fight and her mother locked herself in her room to cry all night. Welcome home, Pans.

"Are you ready to go, pumpkin?" her father asked.

She looked around for Draco or his mother, but couldn't see them. Narcissa had probably just gotten Draco as quickly as possible to avoid seeing anyone she knew.

"Um…yeah, let's go," Pansy nodded, still looking around. She nodded to a few people she knew in passing, but still no sign of Draco. She did see the Golden Trio exiting the train though, in all their righteous glory, laughing about something or other.

She rolled her eyes and followed her father to the car that was waiting outside of King's Cross.

Upon her arrival back to the semi-mansion at 12 Clover Court, she was hit with a wave of familiarity and mild depression. She could only imagine the sight her mother would be; eyes red and puffy with mascara down her face.

Predictably, when she opened the door to her parent's bedroom, the shades were drawn and the lights off.

"Mum?" Pansy asked quietly.

"Pansy? Darling, is that you?"

'_No, it's your other daughter, you pathetic waste of space,'_

"Yeah, it's me," she replied.

Her mother sat up in bed, wiping her nose.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't make it to the station darling, I just wasn't feeling too good today," her mother simpered.

"Of course you weren't. Its fine, mother," Pansy assured her. Her mother hugged her and Pansy went off to her room, mentally cursing the woman.

Her room was exactly how she'd left it September 1st…it seemed like so long ago. Just under a year ago, Draco had been in this exact room…on her bed, his lips on hers…among other places…

She shook her head, trying to erase the memory. It kind of hurt a little bit to think about him and how she wouldn't see him all summer in all likelihood. Only a little bit though…

***

**MID-JULY**

Draco Malfoy lay sprawled out on his large bed, staring at his left forearm. There it was, permanently seared onto his milky white skin, the black ink a blatant contrast.

The Dark Mark.

It hurt like hell getting it. He could smell his own fleshing burning; he could see it smoking. He almost threw up, but the Dark Lord probably would have punished him for that…

He shuddered momentarily. This was real now. He was a Death Eater, just like dear old dad. And he had an enormous task ahead of him…so enormous that he couldn't believe Voldemort entrusted _him_ with it. His stomach knotted with anticipation just thinking about it.

Narcissa was a wreck about it, more so than she was already. She begged Draco not to, just as he knew she would. She begged him to think about what he was doing, but he knew exactly what he was doing, and he would succeed in his task, even if it may very well be the last thing he did.

He would get revenge on that son-of-a-bitch Potter and his little army of bastards. Who the hell did they think they were, turning _Draco Malfoy_ into a slug?

He was getting _really_ tired of being turned into vile rodents and grubs on Potter's account.

His thoughts were interrupted by his mother's voice floating up the stairs.

"Draco, you have a visitor!"

He rolled his eyes. It was probably Crabbe or Goyle, coming to ask him all about getting the Mark and all that nonsense, and he was in no mood for it.

There was a knock on the door.

"Go away, I'm naked,"

There was a pause.

"And that's supposed to keep me away?" came a sultry voice from behind the door.

His stomach fluttered (_'bloody repulsing'_) and he knew immediately who the voice belonged to.

"…Pansy?"

"Open the door, you prat," she ordered from the other side of the door.

He covered his arm with his shirt and got up to let her in.

She stood in the doorway with her arms folded across her chest. Her chestnut brown hair was pulled back, with her long bangs left out. Her green eyes glimmered and she had a seductive smile in place on her pink lips. She looked gorgeous, and he felt his chest tighten at the sight of her.

His breath caught in his throat for about a millisecond before putting on his trademark smirk.

"What the hell are you doing here?" he asked smoothly.

"I came to see you, you dolt," she rolled her eyes, letting herself into his room.

"By yourself?"

"No, my mother wanted to see how 'poor Cissy' was doing," she shrugged, studying her nails. She'd never admit that she'd been constantly thinking about him since they'd left school, and how she secretly ached to see him.

He smirked and laid back down on his bed, putting his left arm behind his head and resting on it.

"So, was I interrupting anything?" she asked slyly.

"Not particularly…we could start something, though," he smirked.

"Maybe later," she said nonchalantly, looking around his room.

"Later? You know you couldn't hold out that long," he said, wagging his eyebrows the way he knew drove her crazy.

"I've been practicing my self-discipline," she joked. Her tone then became more serious.

"So…how are you?"

He wasn't sure how to answer.

'_Lie'_

"Fine," he shrugged indifferently.

She stared at him and raised an eyebrow.

"That's a crock of shit and you know it. You're mother is a mess, so much so that my own mess of a mother felt the need to come see her. Spill,"

He sighed. He could at least _show_ her…he didn't necessarily have to tell her _exactly_ what he was doing.

"You _really_ wanna know?" he asked dramatically.

"Oh, here we go with the theatrics," she rolled her eyes.

He proceeded to take off his shirt, revealing his lean but muscular torso. He knew simply lifting his sleeve would have been enough, but why not go all out?

"I'm gonna slap you, Mal-"

She stopped mid-sentence as he turned his left forearm towards her.

"No…"

Draco looked confused. "No? What do you mean no?" he asked indignantly.

"I just didn't think you'd really get it…"

"Well, I'm glad you have so much faith in me, really. Its inspiring."

"It's not funny, Draco!" she said angrily, climbing onto the bed with him and sitting crossed legged next to him.

"True, but if it gets you into bed with me…" he trailed off, glancing under her skirt.

"I really am going to kill you," she snapped, whacking his shoulder.

"Alright, alright, we'll play later," he smirked, focusing back on her face. She grabbed his arm and looked at it.

"When?" she asked.

"Anytime you want-"

"WHEN DID YOU GET IT?"

"Calm yourself, woman! About a week ago…" he said, pulling his arm away from her.

"What's he making you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know what I mean, he probably wants you to do _something_ for him. What, are you just gonna sit here with a mark on your arm while a war is inevitable?" she asked.

She really was more intelligent then he gave her credit for.

'_Lie'_

"I don't know yet, he hasn't really told me. It's all really secretive right now. And even if I knew, I couldn't tell you. Well, I could, but I'd have to kill you, and I feel like you wouldn't want that," he smirked.

She suddenly looked sad. She took his arm again, staring at it. She'd never really seen the Dark Mark up close before.

She ran her finger up the length of his arm, tracing the shape of the snake.

"Did it hurt?"

Draco shrugged nonchalantly. "It wasn't too bad," he lied.

She smirked. "Yeah right, you were probably cringing the whole time."

It was almost laughable how well she knew him…he couldn't get away with anything.

"Oh yeah? Kind of like how you're going to be in about 2 seconds…"

"What?"

He grabbed her and started tickling her.

"Draco, stop it!" she shrieked, wriggling out of his grasp. She grabbed his hands and pinned him down.

"Ha, nice try," she said smugly, moving her hands dangerously close to his stomach.

"Too bad I'm not ticklish," he smirked triumphantly.

"Really? Shall I test that theory?"

"You'd better not," he warned. She smiled gleefully.

"Parkinson, I swear...do you want me to hex your hands off?" he tried but to no avail. She began tickling him furiously. He bit his lip trying to hold in his laughter, but wasn't all that successful.

"Argh, Pansy, stop, I'm gonna throw up!" he said in between breaths of laughter.

"So the Great Draco Malfoy does have a weakness," she joked, continuing her assault. He squirmed underneath her, and she reveled in power.

"Pansy, please," he begged, still laughing. She was satisfied that she made him beg and let up.

She gave him a minute to catch his breath. "I own you now, you do realize," she smirked.

"If you're going to use that on me now I might break up with you," he said, still panting.

"It's not illegal for you laugh every now and then you know. I won't tell anyone," she said, giving him a genuine smile for once.

Draco could only imagine what Voldemort would say or do if he'd witnessed that scene.

"I think it is," he mumbled.

Pansy's expression softened into a look of sympathy. Draco smirked inwardly. If anyone knew she acted like this in private, she would absolutely die.

Next thing he knew, he felt her soft lips on his, begging him for entrance. He willingly obliged, grabbing the back of her head and pulling her down on the bed with him. His anxiety was temporarily washed away as he felt that damn swelling in his chest again.

He got the feeling she knew this was probably the last time they'd be like this, at least for a while.

He brushed her bangs out of her face as she ran her hands through his hair, as if trying to soak up everything about him while he was still relatively himself.

A sudden knock on the door interrupted them, and she quickly got off him.

"Pansy, your mother is leaving," Narcissa called through the door.

"Okay, thank you," Pansy called back, smoothing down her hair. Draco sighed; he really didn't want her to go.

"I don't want to leave…" she mirrored his thoughts.

"I know, it would've been a good shag," he smirked.

She rolled her eyes but smiled, throwing her arms around his neck. He stood there stiffly for a minute, before slowly lifting his arm up and gingerly putting it around her. He patted her back awkwardly as she continued to hug him.

"Its not like you're never going to see me again, Parkinson…I'll probably see you before we go back to school…" he said, uncomfortable with her random burst of affection.

"Alright, alright, enough," he said, pushing her away.

"Sorry. Look, everything will be okay," she told him, looking into his eyes earnestly.

He gave her a puzzled look.

"Whatever it is you have to do, it'll be okay. And I'll be here," she said, staring at him intently. She was so confusing, it was like all of a sudden she was a different girl than the one who came into his room almost an hour before.

"Er…thank you," he said, struggling for the words. He rarely thanked people, unless it was one of his father's important ministry colleagues.

She touched his face one more time. "Bye," she said softly before leaving the room.

He stood in the doorway watching her go, his heart clenching as he thought about her words.

She wasn't afraid. She knew he had the Mark, she knew that things were about to change drastically for him (and probably her), and she still didn't want to leave him. He felt his heart swelling again as he though about it.

He wasn't sure what the next couple of months held for him. He wasn't sure how the hell he would handle his mission, but he was sure of one thing…

He was in big trouble.

**A/N: Wow, I think that might be the longest chapter yet? I'm sure you guys can decode that last bit (I was trying to be all cryptic and what not) but lets just say our poor Draco is one conflicted little boy. Anyway, I'm really getting back into this…I'm going to try and aim for a min. of one update a week (but probably two). Thanks for reading guys, reviews are much appreciated also (:**


	13. Bad Things

September 1st had once again arrived in a blur for Pansy Parkinson. The summer months glimmered by in bits and pieces; she felt as though she had watched it progress without actually living it.

Her mother's depression seemed to be getting worse, and the family didn't take any summer trips like they usually did. Her father buried himself in his work, spending his days locked in his study while his pitiful wife remained in her room, stuffing her face with chocolate frogs and firewhiskey. Talk about fucking _embarrassing_.

She would occasionally come downstairs to feed Pansy and pretend to 'check up on her', but Pansy spent most of her days in her room, just like _her_. She thought of the impending war between Voldemort and those who opposed him. She'd never admit it, but she was scared. Scared for what would become of their world, and especially scared for Draco.

They'd had one brief reunion in July, after he'd gotten his fated Mark. She replayed their meeting over and over in her head. She imagined he was with her and that their lips were interlocked. Yet, another part of her pretended it hadn't happened, as she was sure he was doing the latter.

Sally Anne's words to her at the end of last year still rang in her mind. _'If you really care about him, you'll stick by him,'_

She pondered this thought with a frown on her way to King's Cross Station, knowing she would see him soon. She _did_ care about him; that much she knew, even though it was a foreign concept to her. A rather sickening foreign concept.

Neither one of her parents accompanied her to the station this time. Her father was 'far too busy' with work, but assured her that he would have very nice Christmas presents (aka 'making up for lack of proper parenting' presents) for her when she returned.

When he asked her mother to take her, a huge fight between them ensued, and her mother accused him of taking advantage of her. She seemed to think it was perfectly acceptable to be falling arse over teakettle drunk at 9:00 in the morning, and why would she _ever_ give two shits about her only child?

Pansy pushed the stinging feeling of neglect to the back of her mind and rolled her eyes at their antics. "Christ, I'll just fucking walk to the station then…it'll be faster than if I stand here arguing with you two sodding idiots" were here exact words to them upon her departure time.

Once her parent's initial shock wore off, it was then quickly decided she would be taken by the family driver, Wetherby. There was no "goodbye darling" kiss from either one.

She felt the car come to a stop as Wetherby got out of the car to retrieve her trunk.

"Your trunk, miss," he said, handing it to her.

"Thank you, Wetherby. I'll see you at Christmas, then," she nodded.

"Have a good term, Miss Pansy," he said with a bow, and returned to the car.

Pansy made her way to the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, and plunged through to the other side. The glittering Hogwarts Express greeted her with its crimson familiarity, and she felt like she was home.

She had started towards the train when she felt a hand enclose firmly over her arm. She whipped around into the stormy gray eyes of Draco Malfoy in all his blonde glory. Her breath caught in her throat; he somehow looked different then the last time she'd seen him. His hair was a bit shorter and slightly messier then usual. He had a certain glint in his eye that she couldn't quite place. It wasn't a happy, cheerful glint either. More of an arrogant, 'I know something you don't', glint.

"Hi," she said as if they'd just met each other.

"Parkinson. Been a while," he drawled, already looking bored.

"I didn't bother to owl you, I figured you'd be busy," she shrugged just as nonchalantly.

"A wise decision. So, am I correct in assuming that you were also relieved of your prefect duties?" he smirked mischievously.

Pansy rolled her eyes. She'd almost forgotten that her stint on the Inquisitorial Squad had gotten her kicked out of her prefect position, along with Draco.

"Yes, I suppose you would be," she said indifferently.

"Well, I won't have time for it anyway," he said pensively.

She studied him as they loaded their trunks on to the train to find a compartment.

She slid open a door to an empty one, dragged in her trunk and sat down with a huff. Draco followed suit, smirking.

"Okay, I'll bite. Why won't you have time for it?" she asked lazily.

"Let's just say I may have been given a _very_ important job to do at Hogwarts this year," he said smugly.

"Oh really? Well, you're off to a great start, getting yourself demoted from being a prefect,"

"Shut up. You'll see…everyone will see…" he trailed off, an angry look settling into his porcelain features. Pansy was suddenly uncomfortable and attempted to change the subject.

"What's so important about this "job", exactly?" she asked, giving him the chance to gloat some more.

"Well, if I succeed, which I will, I will be considered amongst the greatest wizards of our time," he said as if it were so blatantly obvious. Pansy had to scoff at this.

"Right, what are you Harry Potter's assassin or something?"

"You'll find out soon enough," he smirked. She frowned.

"Your sketchiness annoys me, O Great One," her voice dripped with its usual sarcasm.

He smirked. "Don't let on to the others that you know anything…I wanna, you know, get back into proper standing after the end of last year…"

"Good to know you're still a prat," she rolled her eyes.

He smirked and laid his head in her lap. She absentmindedly stroked his hair, brushing some of the strands out of his face. Naturally, Crabbe and Goyle chose that exact moment to lumber in, sitting on the opposite side of Draco and Pansy.

"Oh good, tweedle dumb and tweedle dumber are here. Food trolley's not out yet, boys," Pansy said, continuing to groom Draco's hair. He sniggered underneath her.

"Shut up, Pansy," Crabbe growled, clenching his fists. Pansy laughed.

"Are you going to hit me, you great lump?" she smirked tauntingly. He looked like he was seriously considering throwing a punch.

"Go ahead, you know you want to," she teased.

Crabbe got up from his seat, fists clenched, and Pansy raised her eyebrows.

"Crabbe, sit down before I put you under a Cruciatus," Draco said without even looking at him.

Crabbe looked dumbfounded and sat back down. Goyle sniggered, and Pansy looked pleased.

"Bitch," Crabbe mumbled, pulling out some sort of comic. Pansy laughed again as the compartment door slid open with Zabini standing behind it.

"Save me a seat, would you? I've got to go and meet some Slughorn bloke," he said curtly.

Draco sat up from his position. "Slugorn?"

"Yeah, he's some new teacher. Called a bunch of kids to his compartment, including me,"

Draco looked confused, but let it go. He nodded to Blaise, who left without another word.

"Who's Slughorn, I wonder?" Pansy mused.

"My father had him as a teacher at Hogwarts…he knew my grandfather, too," Draco said more to himself than anyone else.

Pansy continued stroking his hair and stared out the window at the blur of colors. Draco's eyes seemed to flutter occasionally, but then he'd snap them back open. Crabbe and Goyle fetched things from the trolley, even giving Pansy a Cauldron Cake. Well, at least Goyle did.

Weasel and Mudblood walked by, gawking into the compartment like the couple of insolent dingbats they were. Draco flipped them Pansy's personal favorite hand gesture, and the two left without a word. A fairly uneventful train ride.

Some time later, Blaise returned from his lunch with Slughorn.

"What's wrong with this thing?" he demanded as he tried to shut the door, but it wouldn't seem to shut. He finally flung the door back and landed on Goyle's lap, who didn't seem too pleased.

Pansy noticed Draco's eyes follow something on the opposite wall. She looked to where he was looking but saw nothing, so she turned her eyes back to the chaos at the door. She scoffed at Blaise being thrown back into his seat by Goyle. Crabbe went back to whatever comic he was reading, and Draco sniggered, leaning back down onto Pansy's lap.

"So Zabini, what did Slughorn want?" Draco asked him.

"He just wanted to suck up to some well-connected people, I guess," Blaise shrugged.

Draco looked very angry at this.

"Well-connected people? Like who?" he demanded.

"McLaggen from Gryffindor,"

"Oh yeah, his uncle's big at the ministry," Draco reasoned calmly.

"Belby, from Ravenclaw," Blaise continued.

Pansy immediately recognized the name. She vaguely remembered snogging him for some reason or other at the beginning of fourth year…and he never talked to her again afterwards.

"But he's a prat!" she exclaimed in surprise.

"And Longbottom, Potter, and the Weasley girl," he finished.

Pansy's eyes narrowed. Leave it to Potty to be on the list of "well-connected people", but what would he want with the _Weasley_ girl? She was a _Weasley_! It was self-explanatory, at least to anyone who valued their pure blood status. And Longbottom, well…

"Longbottom? He invited _Longbottom?_" Draco asked in disbelief, sitting up abruptly.

"Well, I'm assuming so, since Longbottom was there," Zabini drawled.

"What the _hell _has Longbottom got that would interest Slughorn?" Draco asked, still in shock.

Blaise just shrugged.

"Potter, precious Potter, obviously he wanted to look at 'The Chosen One', but that Weasley girl? What's so special about _her_?" Draco asked as if he was personally offended.

"A lot of boys like her," Pansy said. She glanced at Draco, subtly checking for his reaction._ 'He better not freaking say she's pretty,'_ she thought, but was satisfied by his look of indifference towards her.

"Even you think she's pretty, don't you Blaise? And we all know how hard you are to please!" she continued. Blaise was known for being vain, which is why it didn't surprise her that he dated Daphne. He didn't particularly care what was going on up there so much as what was going on down there.

"I wouldn't touch a filthy little blood traitor like her, no matter what she looked like," Blaise responded coldly. This satisfied Pansy and she smirked with pleasure. Draco, however, still looked indignant.

He let his head fall back into her lap, and she resumed her therapeutic stroking.

"Well, I pity Slughorn's taste. Maybe he's gotten senile. My father used to be a favorite of his…he must not know I'm on the train, or he would've-"

"I wouldn't plan on an invite," said Blaise. "He asked me about Nott's father. They used to be old friends, but when he heard he'd been caught at the Ministry he didn't look happy. Nott didn't get an invite, either. Must not be interested in Death Eathers,"

It still surprised Pansy that Nott's father was a Death Eater. All the time they had dated, he'd never mentioned it. When the Department Of Mysteries incident broke out, she was pretty stunned to learn that his father had been involved.

Draco let out a harsh, humorless laugh.

"Well, who cares what he's interested in? What is he, really, when it comes down to it? Just a stupid teacher," Malfoy yawned, pretending to be bored with the conversation. Pansy knew he was secretly bothered by the lack of invitation; another blow to his rapidly deteriorating social status.

"I mean, I might not even be at Hogwarts next year, what's it matter to me if some fat old has-been likes me or not?"

Pansy halted her grooming in mid-stroke. He apparently left out that bit of information from their earlier chat.

"What do you mean, you might not be going to Hogwarts next year?" she asked, her stomach sinking slightly.

"Well, you never know. I might have…er…moved on to bigger and better things," he smirked. Pansy's eyes narrowed; so _this_ is what he had been hinting at earlier. For his sake, she'd humor him and pretend to be the dumb girlfriend.

"You mean…_Him_?" she asked with mock surprise. He simply shrugged.

"Mother wants me to complete my education, but personally, I don't see it as that important these days. Think about it, when the Dark Lord takes over, it'll be all about the kind of service he received, the level of devotion he was shown. You think he's going to care about how many O.W.L.S or N.E.W.T.S you've got? Of course he isn't."

"And you think _you'll _be able to do something for him, do you?" asked Blaise suspiciously. "Sixteen and not even fully qualified?"

"Like I said, maybe he doesn't care if I'm qualified. Maybe the job he wants me to do isn't something you need to be qualified for," Draco answered quietly.

Blaise shut his mouth, unable to argue. Crabbe and Goyle stared at him, completely dumbfounded. Pansy stared at him in surprise. She'd never really heard him speak so eloquently or seriously about something before, and she felt a sudden rush of curiosity.

The compartment was quiet following his little speech, and he seemed to relish in it.

"I can see Hogwarts, we'd better get our robes on," he said, finally getting up from Pansy's lap.

There was a clangor of trunks hitting the shelves and being shuffled about the compartment as they dressed in their school robes.

They all filed out of the compartment, with Draco lingering behind. Pansy held out her hand for him to take.

"You go on, I just want to check something," he said with a nod to her, leaving her hand dangling in mid-air.

She shot him a confused look but left the compartment anyway, feeling slightly dejected. What would he possibly need to check? _'He just doesn't want to hold my hand in front of everyone, the prat.'_

She followed the other Slytherins to the carrraiges, looking for Sally Anne. She spotted her, unfortunately with Daphne.

She'd played out this moment many times in her head over the summer. Offer Daphne alliance or continue ongoing fight that Daphne would _eventually_ lose?

Well, keep your friends close and your enemies closer, right?

'_Oh, fuck it,'_ she thought as she approached the girls.

"Hey girls," she smirked.

"Pans!" Sally Anne squealed, enveloping her in a hug. Daphne stared at her.

"Pansy," she said coolly.

"Daphne," she returned with a domineering smirk. "Good holiday?"

Daphne shifted uncomfortably. "All right," she shrugged. They stared at each other in silence.

Pansy rolled her eyes. "Christ, this is getting ridiculous. You've had the whole summer to stew over whatever it was I did that pissed you off. Are we friends or not?" she asked Daphne, taking charge of the situation.

She was the boss around here, and everyone would do well to be reminded of it.

Daphne looked hesitant again, weighing her options.

"All right then, truce," Daphne said, smirking a little. She'd wisely decided that it was much safer to be Pansy's friend than her enemy…physically _and_ psychologically.

"Truce? It was hardly even a fight, as you were too scared to even look at me," Pansy smirked back.

"Well, thank Merlin. You two were being bloody idiots. And I hate having to mediate between you," Sally Anne sighed in relief.

The three girls hopped into a carriage that would take them to the large stone castle they called home.

"So, I sat with Blaise on the way here," Pansy smirked at her former ex-best friend.

"You did? Did he mention me at all?" Daphne asked hopefully.

"No," Pansy said bluntly, but upon seeing Daphne's face quickly added, "Although, he wasn't with us very much. He got invited to see some bloke…Slughorn, I think?"

"Whoever that is," Sally Anne said.

"New teacher," Pansy informed them. She loved being the first to know things again.

"Excellent, another new Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher," Daphne grumbled.

"Sixth time's the charm," Pansy shrugged.

The carriages arrived at the entrance to Hogwarts, and the sixth years filed into the Great Hall.

Pansy sat in between Daphne and Sally Anne towards the end of the table. She saw a flash of blonde out of the corner of her eye, and looked to see Draco strutting into the Great Hall.

She eyed him suspiciously as he sat down. There was only one thing that could make him look so triumphant….

"Saw the Boy Wonder then, did you?" she asked, genuinely disinterested. The whole cat-and-mouse thing with Potter was almost as second nature as her and Draco's own 'will they won't they' game.

"Just getting a bit of revenge. Tastes so good," he smirked.

"It must have been fatal for you to look that smug,"

"I was just giving him a little present from me and my father. He turns me into a giant slug, I stun him and break his nose leaving him to bleed, covering him with his own damn invisibility cloak," he smirked proudly.

"You've really outdone yourself," she smirked.

He proceeded to mime the event to the rest of the Slytherins, who were guffawing with laughter. Pansy sniggered along with them; the thought of Potter waking up at King's Cross hours from now was really quite funny.

The Sorting began shortly after, and there were 12 new Slytherins added to the bunch.

"Quite a few this year," Blaise noted. "Too bad you won't be able to boss any of them around," he added to Draco and Pansy.

"You apparently don't know me very well, Zabini," Pansy said. Draco sniggered.

After the feast, Dumbledore got up to make his usual ridiculous speech, talking about House unity and such. The man was so dim…as if there would be any unity between Slytherin and Gryffindor now that a war was so clear on the horizon.

She shot a sideways glance at Draco for his reaction. He had a cruel smirk plastered on his face, and his eyes narrowed like a lion ready to pounce. His fists were balled under the table. Bloodthirsty.

It took a lot to truly scare Pansy. She was usually the last one to start worrying, and even then she never really _worried. _

But the look on his face made her feel like a lead brick had just dropped into her lower abdomen. Something very bad was going on, and she was damn determined to find out what it was.

As the Hogwart's students filed out of the Great Hall following the speech, there was a solemn feeling in the air; the feeling of anxiety and impending dread.

She returned to the familiar dungeon common room that was her home away from home. Everyone was shuffling off to bed, including her girlfriends, but Pansy had other things to do. Mainly Draco Malfoy.

She pulled Draco aside as he was about to climb the stone steps.

"Going somewhere?" she asked, eyebrows arched.

"Well, I _was _going to go to bed, unless you had other plans," he whispered huskily.

"Oh, I have plans, Malfoy. Unfortunately it will be much more difficult without the convenience of a prefect bathroom…."

He smirked confidently. "Come on," he commanded, pulling her robes as he walked towards the portrait hole.

"And where are we going?"

He didn't answer her, instead leading her down a certain familiar hallway. He stopped outside of the prefect's bathroom.

"Um, we don't know the password, remember?" she asked, giving him a confused look.

He smirked triumphantly again. "Weasel and The Mudblood really ought to be more careful with what they talk about when they walk by our compartment."

"You _heard_ them?"

"It wasn't all that hard to miss, what with Weasel complaining so loudly about how he'd never remember 'flibbertigibbet'…"

Pansy almost laughed…the word 'flibbertigibbet' sounded so funny coming out of his mouth. Leave it to Weasel though, to practically announce the password to everyone on the train.

They entered the bathroom and she immediately began sucking his face. He responded by running his hands over every body part they could reach.

"I've waited three months for this…" he murmured, staring at her body hungrily. He was just too goddamn hard to resist.

"Well, we were kind of interrupted last time…" she added as she started to de-robe him. He did the same for her.

"Everything's so different now…" he said absentmindedly.

"Are you going to ever tell me what's going on?" she asked as casually as possible between kisses.

"What do you mean?" he mumbled distractedly.

"You know what I mean,"

He ran his hands up and down her now bare chest and stomach.

"I've already told you, if I were to tell you I'd have to kill you."

He didn't sound like he was joking, either.

"Are you in danger?" she asked despite herself.

He rolled his eyes. "Can you please just shut up and shag me? Like I said, I've waited three whole months. I don't exactly feel like talking."

Merlin forbid Draco Malfoy should go three months without getting laid.

"Well, I'm sure I'll figure it out anyway," she shrugged, pretending to lose interest.

He smirked arrogantly at this. "You'll figure it out after it's already happened."

A mixture of curiosity and mild anxiety was tugging at the pit of her stomach. She was just hoping he wouldn't be one of those suicide bombers that all the muggles in London were so concerned about.

She really also needed to stop watching muggle films.

Muggle films, however, became the furthest thing from her mind as Draco began pulling her panties down around her ankles.

---

The first month of the term was rather uneventful, as it usually was. It rained a lot, and classes were a bitch, but nothing totally earth-shattering had happened. Yet.

Pansy did notice a slight change in Draco, though. She wasn't one to keep tabs on him, but she noticed when he wasn't around…and he wasn't around a whole lot these days.

At first she'd assumed he'd been busy with Quidditch practice, since the beginning of the year was always hectic with practice sessions.

One night, after deciding to blow off her homework in favor of drinking firewhiskey with the girls in the dorm, she thought she might go look for him. She desperately needed a shower as she smelled like alcohol.

'_If he needs a shower after practice, why waste water?'_

She spotted Warrington, a 7th year member of the Slytherin quidditch team, entering the common room.

"Warrington," she nodded as she passed him.

"Hey Pansy, you're looking good this year," he noted with approval. "Tell your boy Draco that he should start coming to practice every now and then," he added.

Pansy stopped cold. "What are you playing at?" she asked him suspiciously.

"Draco's only shown up for one practice this year…he's missed about 5," Warrington said. "I don't know what you two have been up too, but tell him that if he doesn't start showing up he's off the team."

Pansy furrowed her brow in confusion. "Okay…" she said uncertainly.

"Thanks," he said with a final nod, and trudged up to his dorm.

Draco hadn't been going to Quidditch? But…he loved it…he was always talking about it. It was the part of the conversation he actually initiated.

Something was very wrong with this picture. Skipping out on snogging her was one thing, but missing the only thing he truly liked to do at Hogwarts? No way. He'd have to be really sick, like dying, for that to happen.

She suddenly felt the desperate need to see him, something she hadn't felt since before he got his Mark.

And so she found herself wandering through the corridors, thinking of all the places he might be. The prefect's bathroom, the Great Hall, even the library, though the last one was highly unlikely if he was alone.

After a half hour of searching, she finally decided that maybe he just went to bed early and wasn't laying dead in a pool of his own blood somewhere. She couldn't just spend her whole night waiting around for him, after all.

With this satisfying thought, she returned to her dorm to a passed out Daphne and Sally Anne. Millicent was reading on her bed.

"Hi," she said as Pansy entered. They'd been on much better terms since the end of last year, and she didn't seem like such a total cad anymore.

"Hey," Pansy replied, throwing herself onto her bed, slightly out of breath.

"Did you just run a marathon or something?"

"Basically. I was actually looking for Malfoy. Warrington says he hasn't been going to practice…"

"I saw Draco before dinner. He looked like he was heading to the seventh floor staircase," Millicent offered.

Pansy frowned. "What the hell would he be doing there…" she wondered aloud. Millicent shrugged rather unhelpfully.

"Well, whatever, I can't be bothered with it now, I'm about to pass out. And I still haven't showered," she said, wrinkling her nose.

Millicent shook her head and returned to her book. Pansy, who was very drowsy (and still a bit tipsy), welcomed sleep with open arms.

She awoke the next morning to a massive headache; it felt like she'd been pounded over the head with a giant sledgehammer. She noticed that she was still in her school robes and that she smelled strongly of whiskey. Her nose wrinkled in disgust.

Then she noticed the odd silence, and immediately glanced at the beds next to her in a panic.

Luckily, the other girls were snoring softly, still asleep. The large clock on the wall read 6:34 a.m.

Pansy groaned and lay back down on her pillow. Of course her biological clock would wake her up that early when she hungover.

Forcing every nerve in her body to get up, she walked with difficulty to the bathroom. She slid off her robes and turned on the shower until steam came from the tap.

She let the hot water caress her skin as she simply stood there. She hadn't done any of her homework the night before and she was nursing a terrible hangover.

But she was only thinking about Draco.

If he wasn't going to Quidditch practice, then where the bloody hell _was _he going?

She couldn't _entirely_ rule out that he was sneaking around with some whore; he was Draco after all. But if this was the case, she'd have to kill him. And the bitch he was sleeping with. It wouldn't be pretty.

For some reason though, she didn't think this to be the case. Draco was very distant this year; not only with her, but everyone else too. Even Crabbe and Goyle, though he was with them the most.

She shut off the water and exited the shower, enveloped by the warmth of the bathroom. Wrapped in a towel, she exited to the dorms. Most of the girls were awake at this point.

"My head is positively _pounding_," Daphne moaned.

"It was your idea!" Sally Anne snapped. Her eyes were red and puffy, and she was in no mood for Daphne's complaining.

"Well apparently neither one of you can handle your liquor. I came back here at 8 and you were both passed out," Pansy smirked, changing into fresh robes and grooming her hair.

"I need eggs," Sally Anne replied monotonously. She moved slowly to the door and shuffled down the common room, Pansy and Daphne in tow.

Again, there was no sign of Draco in the Great Hall. Pansy was very curious at this point until she saw the familiar flash of blonde enter through the doors. She was relieved to see him alive, but she couldn't say he was looking well.

Pansy raised her eyebrows at his state as he got closer. He looked worse then she did; perhaps he _was_ sneaking around. His eyes were bloodshot and puffy, and there were dark circles under them.

His normally neat hair was slightly disheveled, and his skin looked sallow.

"Where the hell have you been?" she asked immediately as he sat down next to her.

"Not now," he answered as though each word were a struggle to get out.

"Did you sleep at all? You look really sick," Pansy observed. She slowly slid her hand under the table and put it over his. She meant this gesture to be reassuring, but he quickly retracted his hand.

"I'm fine," he said in a slightly hoarse voice. He was fiercely concentrating on his eggs and bacon, but never lifted the fork to his mouth.

She shot him a skeptical look, but let it drop for now.

"You're not fine, but okay," she said, going back to her own breakfast. She wasn't going to pump him for information when he looked like hell on legs.

His eyes occasionally fluttered, then snapped open again. He still hadn't touched his food when he stood up and left the Great Hall again without a word to anyone.

The other Slytherins looked at each other in confusion. Wasn't he supposedly doing some big mission for the Dark Lord? He should have been ecstatic…it wasn't adding up.

Pansy, however, tried to suppress the growing anxiety and concern. She hated getting worried over nothing, but she really hated not knowing what was going on. She was the gossip queen, you know.

Her eyes followed him as he left the Great Hall. The confident swagger he usually boasted didn't have quite as much swag today, but there was still a bit none the less.

She knew he probably hadn't wanted the other Slytherins to see him that way. They were all staring at her, waiting for her to react, so she did the first thing that came to her mind.

She got up and went after him.

**AN: Sorry for the update delay…I tried to make it nice and long to make up for it. I'm re-reading the 6****th**** book to brush up on my memory, it's been so long since I read it! And I still haven't seen the movie, but Draco looks very sexy (what else is new?), and Pansy is actually in it? I need to go see it! Thanks again to my lovely readers and reviewers! Keep them coming (:**


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